Mons, Anzac and Kut

QjiattteU llttttttetattg SIthtact)

Htliaca. S^ew Qntk

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

JACOB H. SCHIFF

ENDOWMENT FOR THE PROMOTION

OF STUDIES IN

HUMAN CIVILIZATION

1916

Cornell University Library
D 640.H53

Mons. Anzac and ^^^

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Library

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tine Cornell University Library.

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MONS, ANZAC AND KUT

By an M.P.

LONDON

EDWAED AKNOLD

1919

IMl rights 'TaserueA]

THIS BOOK
IS DEDICATED TO

LORD ROBERT CECIL

AND

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

PREFACE

JOURNALS, in the eyes of their author, usually
require an introduction of some kind, which,
often, may be conveniently forgotten. The reader
is invited to turn to this one if, after persevering
through the pages of the diary, he wishes to learn
the reason of the abrupt changes and chances of
war that befell the writer. They are explained
by the fact that his eyesight did not allow him to
pass the necessary medical tests. He was able,
through some shght skill, to evade these obstacles
in the first stage of the war ; later, when England
had settled down to routine, they defeated him,
as far as the WestfTi Front was concerned. He
was fortunately compensated for this disadvantage
by a certain knowledge of .the East, that sent him
in various capacities to different fronts, often at
critical times. It was as an Interpreter that the
writer went to France. After a brief imprisonment,
it was as an Intelligence Officer that he went to
Egypt, the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia.

The first diary was dictated in hospital from
memory and rough notes made on the Retreat
from Mons. For the writing of the second diary,
idle hours were provided in the Dardanelles between
times of furious action. The third diary, which

iv PREFACE

deals with the fall of Kut, was written on the Fly
boats of the River Tigris.

In a diary egotism is inevitable. Julius Caesar
cloaked it by using the third person and Lord
French by preferring to blame others, rather than
to praise himself, but these devices are no precedents
for one who is not a generaUssimo* There remains
anonymity. True, it is a very thin covering for
modesty, but, like a modern bathing-dress, it may
serve its purpose.

When dots occur in the journal, they have their
usual significance. The author was thinking his
private thoughts, or, perhaps, criticizing some high
authority, or concealing what, for the moment,
at any rate, is better not revealed.

In the Retreat from Mons, only Christian or
nicknames have generally been used. In the case
of the other two Expeditions, names have been
used freely, though where it was considered advisable,
they have occasionally been disguised or initials
substituted for them.

This diary claims to be no more than a record
of great and small events, a chronicle of events
within limited horizons — a retreat, a siege and an
attack. Writing was often hurried and difficult,
and the diary was sometimes neglected for a
period. If inaccuracies occur, the writer offers
sincere apologies.

CONTENTS

FAOE

MONS, 1914 ....... 5

ANZAC, 1915 . . . . .61

KUT, 1916 189

MONS

1914

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MONS
August 12-Septembeb 13, 1914

ON Wednesday, August 12, 1914, my regiment left
Wellington Barracks at seven in the morning.
I fell into step in the ranks as they went out of
the gateway, where I said good-bye to my brother,
who left that day. It was very quiet in the streets,
as the papers had said nothing about the movement
of troops. On the march the wives and relations
of men said good-bye to them at intervals, and some
of our people came to see us off at the station,
but we missed them.

We entrained for Southampton — Tom, Robin,
Valentine and I got into the same carriage. We
left Southampton without much delay. I was
afraid of a hitch, but got on to the ship without
any trouble. On board everybody was very cheerful.
Most people thought that the first big engagement
would have begun and very likely have ended
before we arrived. Some were disappointed and
some cheered by this thought. The men sang
without ceasing and nobody thought of a sea attack.

The next day (the 13th) we arrived very early at
Le Havre in a blazing sun. As we came in, the
French soldiers tumbled out of their barracks and
came to cheer us. Our men had never seen foreign
uniforms before, and roared with laughter at their
colours. Stephen Burton of the Coldstream Guards

6 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

rebuked his men. He said : " These French troops
are our AUies ; they are going to fight with us
against the Germans." Whereupon one man said :
" Poor chaps, they deserve to be encouraged,"
and took off his cap and waved it and shouted
" Vive I'Empereur ! " He was a bit behind the
times. I believe if the Germans beat us and
invaded England they would still be laughed at
in the villages as ridiculous foreigners.

We were met by a Colonel of the French Reserves,
a weak and ineffective man, two Boy Scouts, and
a semi-idiotic mterpreter. We shed this man as
soon as we were given our own two excellent inter-
preters. We had no wood to cook the men's
dinners, and I was sent off with Jumbo and a
hundred men to see what I could find. A French
corporal came reluctantly with us. We marched
a mile, when we found an EngHsh quartermaster
at a depot, who let us requisition a heap of great
faggots, which we carried back.

After breakfast I was sent with Hickie to arrange
for billeting the men. Hickie rode a bicycle and
lent me his horse, which was the most awful brute
I have ever mounted in any country. It walked
ordinarily Hke a crab ; when it was frightened it
walked backwards, and it was generally frightened.
It would go with the troop, but not alone, and
neither whip nor reins played any part in guiding
the beast. Hickie couldn't ride it. Some French
soldiers threw some stones at it and hit me. Finally
we got a crawling cab, then a naotor, and went
off about 11 kilometres to the Cafe des Fleurs,
where the camp was to be. It was a piping hot
day. We got a house for the Colonel and Desmond
belonging to Monsieur Saville, who said he was

LE HAVEE 7

a friend of Mr. Yoxall, M.P. He had a very jolly
arbour, where we dined. In the afternoon the
troops came marching up the steep hill in great
heat. Hickie and I found a man rather drunk,
with a very hospitable Frenchman. The Frenchman
said : " We have clean sheets and a well-aired bed,
coffee, wine or beer for him, if he desires them,"
There was no question about the man's desiring
them. Hickie almost wept, and said : " How can
you keep an army together if they are going to
be treated like this ? " The sun had been delightful
in the morning at Le Havre, but was cruel on the
troops, especially on the Reservists, coming up
the long hill.

The French had been very hospitable. They
had given the men, where they had been able to
do so free of observation, wine, coffee and beer.
The result was distressing. About twenty of the
men collapsed at the top of the hiU in a ditch,
some of them unconscious, seeming almost dying,
like fish out of water. The French behaved very
well, especially the women, and stopped giving
them spirits. I got hold of cars and carried the
men off to their various camps. Jack, Tom and I
slept all right in a tent on the ground. The next day
I was sent down by the Colonel with the drum-
major, to buy beer for the regiment at Is. Id. a
gallon, which seemed cheap. I met Stephen while
I was buying things. He told me we were off
that night, that we were to start at ten, but that
we should not be entrained till 4.30. I lunched
with Churchill, who very kindly tried to help me
to get a horse. Long sent me back in his motor.
At the camp, the Colonel complained that the beer
had not come, and that the drum-major and the

8 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

men had been lost. I commandeered a private
motor and went back at a tremendous rate into
the town, all but killing the drum-major at a corner.
We had a capital dinner. M. SaviUe gave us
excellent wine, and the Colonel told me to make him
a speech. We then lay down before the march.
The next camp captured a spy, but nobody paid
any attention. About 10.30 we moved off. It
was a warm night with faint moonhght. Coming
into the town the effect was operatic. As we
marched or were halted all the windows opened
and the people put their heads out to try and
talk to us. At about half-past eleven it began
to rain, but the men whistled the Marseillaise and
" It's a long way to Tipperary." The people came
out of the houses, trying to catch the hands of the
men and walking along beside them. We were
halted in front of the station, and waited endlessly
in the rain. We then had an almost unspeakable
march over cobbles, past interminable canals, over
innumerable bridges, through what seemed to be
the conglomeration of all the slums of all the world,
to Hght that always promised us rest but never came.
It poured without ceasing. At last we arrived
at the station, and when we saw the train pan-
demonium followed. Everybody jumped into
carriages and tried to keep other people out, so
as to have more room. We were all soaked to the
skin, and nobody bothered about any one else.
After that we got out and packed the men in. Tom,
Charles, Jack, Hickie and I got into one carriage.
Lieutenants who tried to follow were hurled out.
It was very cold. Tom had a httle brandy, which
did us some good. At about 5 a.m. we moved off.
The next day we arrived at Amiens.

VADENCOUET 9

Saturday, the 15th, we arrived at Amiens to see a
great stir and bustle. We had not had much to eat.
We found several officers of the Coldstream Guards
in their shirt-sleeves, who had got left trying to
get food. I got masses later on at a wayside station,
and a stream of people to carry it, and returned
with rousing cheers from the men. At every station
we were met by enormous crowds that cheered and
would have kissed our hands if we had let them.
They made speeches and piled wreaths of flowers
upon the Colonel, who was at first very shy, but
driven to' make a speech, hked it, and became
almost garrulous. At Arras we had the greatest
ovation of aU. An old man in the crowd gave
me a post-card, which I directed to a relation at
home and asked him to post. This he did, adding
a long letter of his own, to say that I was well
and in good spirits. This letter and my post-card
got past the censor.

Late that night we came to a place called Wassigny,
where, after a lot of standing about, we went up
to a farmhouse. Hickie and I lay down on the floor
in a sort of an office at about haK-past two, with
orders to be off at five. The Colonel slept outside,
half on and half off a bench. He never seemed
to need sleep.

We left the next morning, Sunday, the 16th,
at five, for Vadencourt. I was wearing Cretan
boots, and my feet already began to trouble me.

At Vadencourt we met the Maire and his col-
league. Monsieur Lesur. He took us first of all to
the most beautiful place for a camp, a splendid
field by a river for bathing, wooded with poplars,
but no sooner had we got there than we were told
the Coldstreamers had the right to it.

10 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

In Vadencourt everybody helped us. The people
threw open their houses, their barns and their
orchards. They could not do enough ; but it was
a long business and we had not finished until
1 o'clock, by which time we were pretty tired.
Then the troops turned up, and we had to get
them into billets. After that we lanched with the
Colonel. The French cottages were extraordinarily
clean, never an insect, but plenty of mice rioting
about at night. There were many signs of religion
in all these cottages. Most of the rooms were
filled with crucifixes and pictures of the Saints.
The priests seemed to have a great deal of influence.
Vadencourt was very religious, and the morning
we went oflE they had a special service for the men,
which was impressive. All the people seemed
saintly, except the Maire, who was very much
of this world.

The men had fraternized with the people and,
to the irritation of the Colonel, wore flowers in
their hair and caps. There was no drunkenness
— ^in fact the men complained that there was nothing
strong enough to make a man drunk. Generally
there was not much to do, though one day the men
helped with the harvest. The people could not
have been kinder. It was, as one of the men said,
a great " overtation." Every day there was a
paper pubhshed in amazing English. In one paper
we found a picture of Alex Thynne, with con-
temptuous and angry references to a speech he
had made against EngUsh tourists going to France ;
he wanted them to go instead to Bath, in his con-
stituency, and so to please both him and his
constituents.

It was a quiet life. There was very little soldiering,

VADENCOUET 11

and that, as some one said, was more like mancBuvres
in the millennium than anything else. Everywhere
corn was offered for our horses and wine for our-
selves, but there was a great fear underlying the
quiet. We were constantly asked whether the
Germans would ever get to Vadencourt, and always
said we were quite sure they would not. We used
to mess at the inn close to my house. Of French
troops we saw practically nothing, except our
two interpreters, Chariot, who talked very good
EngUsh, and Bernard, a butcher from Havre,
a most excellent fellow, who was more English
than the English, though he could only talk a few
words of the language. There was also another
interpreter, head master of a girls' school in Paris.
He said to me : " Vous trouverez toutes especes
d'infames parmi les interprets, meme des M.P.s."

One day Hugo said that it would be interesting,
before going into battle, to have our fortunes
told. I told him he could not get a fortune-teller
at Vadencourt. " Not at all, there is one in the
village ; I saw it written over her shop, ' Sage
Femme '." ... I was very comfortable in my house,
which was just out of bounds, but not enough to
matter.

Monsieur Louis Prevot came in one day, with
a beautiful mare, brown to bay, Moonshine II,
by Troubadour out of Middlemas. He said that
she could jump two metres. Her disadvantages
were that she jumped these two metres at the
wrong time and in the wrong place, that she hated
being saddled and kicked when she was groomed :
while Monsieur Prevot was showing me how to
prevent her kicking she kicked right through the
bam door. I bought her for £40, I think Prevot

12 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

thought that the French authorities were going
to take his stables and that I was his only chance.
When she settled dow-n to troops she became a
beautiful mount.

That day I went with Hickie through Etreux
to Boue, foraging. I drove with a boy called
Vanston behind a regular man-killer. It was far
worse than anj'^thing that happened at Mons.
Vanston talked aU the time of the virtue of Irish-
women, of the great advantage of having medals
and the delight old men found in looking at them,
of the higher courage of the unmarried man and
his keen anxiety to get into battle, and of the good-
ness of God. Hickie was upset because he thought
that the man-killing horse was going to destroy
the Maltese cart, which was, apparently, harder
to replace than Vanston or me.

The night before we left the Colonel gave us
a lecture. As an additional preparation for the
march we were also inoculated against typhoid,
which made some people light-headed.

We left Vadencourt on August 19th, Hickie
and Hubert both ill, travelling on a transport
cart. I rode ahead, through pretty and uneventful
country. At Oisy, Hickie was very ill, and I got
him some brandy. W^e were to camp beyond
Oisy. When we got to the appointed place the
Maire was ill and half dotty. S. and I laboured
like mad to find houses, but at last, when our work
was finished we found that they had already been
given to the Coldstreamers. Some of the people
were excellent. One old fellow of seventy wept
and wished that his house was as big as a bam,
that he might put up the soldiers in it. A rough
peasant boy took me round and stayed with us

THE ADVANCE 13

all the afternoon and refused to take a penny.
But some of them were not so kind. In the end,
billets were not found for a number of officers
and men, who slept quite comfortably in the new-
mown hay. We passed a big monastery where
two Germans, disguised as priests, had been taken
and shot the week before. I slept in a house
belonging to three widows, aU like stage creatures.
They had one of the finest cupboards I have ever
seen.

The next morning (August 20th) we marched
off to Marbilles — a big dull town, and again some
of the people were not overpleased to see us. Here
we had an excellent dinner. I slept at a chemist's.
Hickie was sent back from Maroilles to Amiens
with rheumatic fever. We got up at 4 o'clock
the next morning (August 21st), and had a pretty
long march to Longueville by Malplaquet.

As we crossed the frontier the men wanted
a cheer, but they were ordered to be quiet, "so as
not to let the Germans hear them." This order
gave an unpleasant impression of the proximity
of the Germans.

The men began to fall out a great deal on the
road. The heat was very great. Many of the
reservists were soft, and their feet found them
out. Their rough clothes rubbed them. Tom
carried rifles all day, and I carried rifles and kit
on my horse, while the men held on to the stirrups.

By this time the Maires of France seemed to
be growing faint under the strain of billeting.
We never saw the Maire of Longueville. The
country made a wonderful picture that I shall
never forget. We marched past fields of rich,
tall grass, most splendid pasture, and by acres and

14 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

acres of ripe corn which was either uncut or, if
cut, uncarried.

There was any amount of food for our horses,
but one felt reluctant at first at feeding them in
the standing com. I went ahead when I could
to forage for the mess, and because Moonshine
danced continuously and produced confusion.

We lived chiefly on hard-boiled eggs, chocolate
and beer, but we did better than most other
companies, because generally, as Valentine said,
the officers' vocabulary was limited to " omelette "
and " biere."

Longueville is a very long town, with fine houses,
and we did capitally there, but the men were tired.
No. 3 dined luxuriously at a farm. Hugo and I
billeted at two houses close to each other. At
6 o'clock I went to get some rest, when my servant
told me that the order had come to stand to arms
at once, as the Germans were close upon us.

I went outside and heard one cannon boom very
faintly in the distance. Women were wringing
their hands and crying in the streets, and the
battaUon was ordered to stand to arms. Then,
after a time, we were ordered to march at ten, and
went back to quarters. At this time we began
to curse the Germans for disturbing the peace of
Europe.

The women of the village brought us milk, bread,
everything they could for the march. While we
were dining the order came to make ready for a
German attack. We went out at once. Bernard
took me up and down various roads, and we put
iron and wire and everything we could lay hold
of, across them, making a flimsy defence. When
we returned we heard that we were to march at

MONS 15

2 a.m., and at 11 those who could lay down
to sleep. The woman in my house was very kind
in getting bread and milk. At 2 o'clock we began
marching. The horses were all over the place.
Moonshine nearly kicked a man behind her heels,
and Tom just missed being killed by the ammunition
horse in front. It was very dark.

We marched to a place called Senhs. Dawn
came, and then an enemy aeroplane appeared over
us, which everybody at once shot at. Moonshine
broke up two companies in the most casual way.
The aeroplane went on. In Belgium the people
were very good to us, during the week-end that
we spent there. They were honest and pathetic.
There were no signs of panic, but there was a ghastly
silence in the towns.

Beyond Senlis we were halted on a plain near
a big town which we did not then know was Mons.
We were drawn up and told that the Germans
were close to us and that we had to drive them
back. Valentine and I lay down under the shelter
of a haystack, as it was raining. It was a mournful
day in its early hours. At about 10 a.m. I was
sent for by the Colonel, who had been looking
for me, he said, for some time. He told me to
ride after S. to Quevy-le-Grand. I rode fast, and
caught up S. We stabled our horses and went
round the town. Soames, a Staff officer, told
us we could have both sides of the road— as we
understood, the pompous main road. Unfortunately
he meant both sides of an insignificant road we
had not even noticed. We took one of the biggest
and most beautiful farms I have ever seen for Head-
quarters, and proposed to put seven or eight officers
in it. We then, as usual, found that, this house

16 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

and all the rest had been given to the Coldstreamers,
and we went to hunt for other billets. I thought
I heard cannon, faint and dim. As we went on
with our work the noise grew louder and louder.
There was a big battle going on within four or five
miles. Then in came the battalion from Senlis
(which was burnt twenty-four hours later) at
about twelve, and got into billets, while, at last,
we had luncheon. Valentine and I were eating
an omelette and talking Shakespeare, when suddenly
we saw the battalion go past. We both got cursed
because we had not been able to prophesy that the
battalion would start within twenty minutes. We
marched on till about half-past three, through
rising and falling land, under a very hot sun. We
were getting nearer to the battle. The sky was
filled with smoke-wreaths from shells. " We are
going slap-bang at them," said Hubert. At 3.30
we found ourselves on a hill, by a big build-
ing which looked like a monastery. The road
was crowded with troops and frightened peasants.
Below the road lay the green valley with the river
winding through it, and on the crest of the wooded
hills beyond were the Germans.

We left our horses and marched down to the
valley. As we passed the village of Harveng
I inconsiderately tried to get a drink of water from
a house. The men naturally followed, but we
were all ordered on, and I had nothing to drink
until 7 o'clock the next morning. The men, or
some of them, got a little water that night.

From behind us by the monastery the shells
rose in jerks, three at a time. The Germans
answered from the belt of trees above the cliffs.
Our feelings were more violently moved against

MONS 17

Germany as the disturber of Europe. I went
into the first fight prepared only for peace, as I
had left my revolver and sword on my horse. Tom
said : " For goodness' sake don't get away from
our company ; those woods will be full of Germans
with bayonets to-night." We never doubted that
we should drive them back. The Colonel called
the officers together and told us that the trees
above the chalk cHfEs were our objective. We
then lay down in some lucerne and waited and
talked. The order to move came about 5.30,
I suppose. We went down through the fields
rather footsore and came to a number of wire
fences which kept in cattle. These fences we
were ordered to cut. My agricultural instinct re-
volted at this destrdction. We marched on through
a dark wood to the foot of the cliffs and, skirting
them, came to the open fields, on the flank of the
wood, sloping steeply upwards. Here we found
our first wounded man, though I believe as we
moved through the wood an officer had been
reported missing.

The first stretch was easy. Some rifle bullets
hummed and buzzed round and over us, but nothing
to matter. We almost began to vote war a dull
thing. We took up our position under a natural
earthwork. We had been there a couple of minutes
when a reaUy terrific fire opened. We were told
afterwards that we were not the target — that it
was an accident that they happened to have stumbled
on the exact range. But even if we had known
this at the time, it would not have made much
difference. It was as if a scythe of bullets passed
directly over our heads about a foot above the
earthworks. It came in gusts, whistUng and sighing.

3

18 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

The men behaved very -well. A good many of
them were praying and crossing themselves. A
man next to me said : " It's hell fire we're going
into." It seemed inevitable that any man who
went over the bank must be cut neatly in two.
Valentine was sent to find out if Bernard was ready
on the far left. Then, in a lull, Tom gave the
word and we scrambled over and dashed on to
the next bank. Bullets were singing round us
like a swarm of bees, but we had only a short way
to go, and got, all of us, I think, safely to the next
shelter, where we lay and gasped and thought
hard.

Our next rush was worse, for we had a long way
to go through turnips. The prospect was extremely
unattractive ; we thought that the fire came from
the fine of trees which we were ordered to take,
and that we should have to stand the almost im-
possible fire from which the first bank had sheltered
us. This was not the case, as the German trenches,
we heard afterwards, were about 300 yards behind
the trees, but their rifle fire and their shells cut
across. We had not gone more than about 100
yards, at a rush and uphill, when a shell burst
over my head. I jumped to the cpnclusion that
I was killed, and fell flat. I was ashamed of myself
before I reached the ground, but, looking round,
found that everybody else had done the same.

The turnips seemed to offer a sort of cover, and
I thought of the feelings of the partridges, a covey
of which rose as we sank. Tom gave us a minute
in which to get our wind — we lay gasping in the
heat, while the shrapnel splashed about — and then
told us to charge, but ordered the men not to fire
until they got the word. As we rose, with a number

MONS 19

of partridges, the shooting began again, violently,
but without much effect, I think we had six
or seven men hit. We raced to the trees. Valentine
was so passionately anxious to get there that he
discarded his haversack, scabbard and mackintosh,
and for days afterwards walked about with his
naked sword as a walking-stick.

When we reached the trees in a condition of
tremendous sweat we found an avenue and a road
with a ditch on either side. We were told that our
trenches were a few yards over the farther hedge,
faced by the German trenches, about 250 yards
off. There was fierce rifle and machine-gun fire.
Night fell ; the wounded were carried back on
stretchers ; we sat very uncomfortably in a ditch.
I was angry with Tom for the only time on the
march, as he was meticulous about making us
take cover in this beastly ditch when outside it
there was a bank of grass Hke a sofa, which to all
intents and purposes was safe from fire. We were
extremely thirsty, but there was nothing to drink
and no prospect of getting water. After some
time we moved down the road upon which we
lay, getting what sleep we could. In the earher
part of the night there were fierce duels of rifle
fire and machine-guns between the two trenches.
It sounded as if the Germans were charging. Our
men in the road never got a chance of letting ofE
their guns. Most of us dosed coldly and uncomfort-
ably on the hard road. I woke up about 2 a.m.,
dreaming that a mule was kicking the splash-
board of a Maltese wagon to pieces, and then
realized that it was the German rifle fire beyond
the hedge, hitting the road. I walked up the road
for a few yards and heard two men talking, one

20 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

of whom was, I suppose, Hubert,, and the other
must have been C. Hubert said : " Have I your
leave, sir, to retire ? " " Yes, you have ; everybody
else has gone ; it is clear that we are outflanked
on the left, and it is suicide to stay." The battaUon
was then ordered to retire; No. 3 Company, doing
rearguard, was ordered back to the fields which
we had already crossed. I said to Tom : " I
hear upon the best authority that this is suicide."
Tom said : "Of course it is ; we shall get an
awful slating." We moved back. There was a
faint hght and a spasmodic rifle fire from the
Germans as we went back to the fields we had
crossed. We could not make out why they did
not open on us with shrapnel, as they had the
range. We lay down on the new-cut hay, which
smelt delicious- It seemed almost certain that we
should be wiped out when dawn came, but most
of us went fast asleep. I did. At 4 o'clock we
were hurried off. We went down into the bhnding
darkness of the wood by the road we had gone the
evening before. We went through the wood, past
the monastery, up into the village. There we
waited. The road was blocked, the villagers were
huddled, moaning, in the streets.

The men were very pleased to have been under
fire, and compared notes as to how they felt. Every
one was pleased. But they felt that more of this
sort of thing would be unciviUzed, and it ought
to be stopped by somebody now. In the dawn
we crossed a high down, where we expected to be
shelled, but nothing happened. We were very
tired and footsore.

At 7 o'clock we got to Quevy-le-Petit and had
a long drink, the first for seventeen hours. The

THE EETREAT 21

smell of powder and the heat had made us very
thirsty. Two companies were set to dig trenches.
We were held in reserve, and all the hot morning
we shelled the Germans from Quevy-le-Petit, while
their guns answered our fire without much efEect,
One shell was a trouble. The remainder of the

Regiment (men without officers), who had had

a bad time at Mons, had a shell burst over them
and rushed through our ranks, taking some of our
men with them. This was put right at once.

We were told that a tremendous German attack
was to take place in the evening ; we dishked
the idea, as, even to an amateur Uke myself, it was
obvious that there was hardly any means of defence.
To stay was to be destroyed, as the Colonel said
casually, causing " une impression bien penible."

We wrote farewell letters which were never
sent. I kept mine in my pocket, as I thought it
would do for a future occasion. They began to
shell us heavily while we helped ourselves from
neighbouring gardens. We did this with as much
consideration as possible, and Valentine and I
went oflE to cook some potatoes in an outhouse
by a lane.

The peasants were flying, and offered us all their
superfluous goods. They were very kind. Then
an order to retire came, and in hot haste we left our
potatoes. We retired at about 1 o'clock in the
afternoon and marched to Longueville, or rather
to a camp near it called Bavai. We reached this
camp at about 10.30 at night. Moonshine behaved
like the war-horse in the Bible. She had hysterics
which were intolerable ; smelUng the battle a long
way off. She must have done this the night before,
when it was much nearer and I had left her with

22 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Ryan, for when I found her again she had only
one stirrup. A sergeant-major captured her and
picketed her for the night.

The orchard in which we camped blazed with
torch-light and camp-fires and was extremely
cheerful. Every now and then a rifle went off by
accident, and this was always greeted with
tremendous cheers.

I was very tired, and threw myself down to sleep
under a tree, when up came the Colonel and said :
" Come along, have some rum before you go to
bed." I went and drank it, and with all the others
lay down thoroughly warm and contented in the
long wet grass, and slept soundly for three hours.
Next morning we were woken about 3 o'clock,
but did not march off till 6 o'clock.

From Bavai we marched to Landrecies. Hubert
rode ahead with me to do the billeting. We
pastured our horses in the luxuriant grass and got
milk at the farms. We did not see much sign of
panic amongst the people, but coming to a big
railway station we saw that all the engines of the
heavy ammunition wagons had been turned round.
Hubert saw and swore. In the morning we occupied
a farm, where I tried to buy a strap to replace my
lost stirrup. We lay about under haystacks and
talked to the farmer and his son. After about
an hour it was reported that two hundred Germans
were coming down the road, and Eric went off
after them, with machine-guns.

The retreat had begun in real earnest. This
whole retreat was curiously normal. Everybody
got very sick of it, and all day long one was hearing
officers and men saying how they wanted to turn
and fight. I used to feel that myself, though

LANDEECIES 23

when one was told to do so and realized that we
were unchaperoned by the French and faced by
about two million Germans, it did something to
cool one's pugnacity, and one received the subsequent
order to retire in a temperate spirit. Men occasion-
ally fell out from bad feet, but the regiment marched
quite splendidly. There was never any sign of
flurry or panic anywhere. I think that most
people, when they reahzed what had happened,
accepted things rather impersonally. They thought
that as far as our Army in France was concerned,
disaster, in the face of the enormous numbers that
we had to fight, was inevitable, but that this disaster
was not vital as long as the Navy was safe.

My dates are not quite accurate here, as I cannot
account for one day. It was Sunday, August 23rd,
that we had the fight at Mons ; I remember several
men said : " Our people are now going to Evening
Service at home," as we marched out ; and it was
Tuesdaj'^, September 1st, that we had the fight in
which I and the others were taken prisoners.

Hubert and I arrived at Landrecies about 1 o'clock.
Going in, we met S., a Staff officer, who told us
where we could quarter the men. We went to
a big house belonging to a man called Berlaimont,
which Hubert wanted to have as Headquarters.
Berlaimont was offensive and did not wish to give
his house. We went on to the Maire, who gave ua
permission to take it. After lunch we went on
billeting, finding some very fine houses. We had
a mixed reception. Berlaimont gave in ungraciously,
and wrote up rather offensive orders as to what
was not to be done : " Ne pas cracher dans les
corridors." In other houses, too, they made
difficulties. I said : " After all, we are better

24 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

than the Germans." They soon had the chance
of judging. The troops came in to be billeted.
At 6 o'clock fire suddenly broke out in the town,
and the cry was raised that the Germans were upon
us. I ran back and got my sword and revolver
at Headquarters, and going out, found a body of
unattached troops training a Maxim on the estaminet
that was my lodgings. I prevented them firing.
Troops took up positions all over the town. The
inhabitants poured out pell-mell. It was like a
flight in the Balkans. They carried their all away
in wheelbarrows, carts, perambulators and even
umbrellas. I met and ran into M. Berlaimont,
very pale and fat, trotting away from the town ;
he said to me with quivering cheeks : " What is
it ? " I said : " It is the Prussians, M. Berlaimont.
And they will probably spit in your corridors."

We had some dinner in a very hospitable house.
At 8 o'clock there was some very fierce fighting ;
the Coldstreamers had been ordered outside the
town. The Germans came up, talking French, and
called out to Monk, a Coldstream officer : " Ne
tirez pas ; nous sommes des amis," and " Vive
les Anglais." A German knocked Monk under a
transport wagon. Then our men grasped what
was happening ; they charged the Germans and
the Germans charged them, three times, I believe.
They brought up machine-guns. Afterwards one
of our medical officers said that we had lost 150
men, kilUng 800 to 1,000 Germans. It was there
that Archer Chve was killed.

Just before dinner I met an officer of the regiment*
I asked him if he had a billet. He told me he could
not get one, and I said he could have mine and that
I would find another. However, I found that my

LANDEECIES 25

kit had already been put into the estaminet, and
took him up to the market-place to find a lodging.
We first went to an empty oaf 6, where all the liquor
was left out, with no master or servants. We
left money for what beer we drank. I then found
a room in a tradesman's house. After dinner I
went down to the main barricade with Jack.
Wagons, including one of our own that carried our
kit, had been dragged across the road and defences
were put up hke Kghtning. We loopholed the
houses and some houses were pulled down. It was
an extraordinarily picturesque scene. The town was
pitch-black except where the torches glowed on the
faces and on the bayonets of the men, or where
shells flashed and bxirst. I thought of the taking
of Itahan towns in the seventeenth century. The
Germans shelled us very heavily. It did not
seem as if there was much chance of getting away,
but no one was despondent. At about I a.m.
there was a luU in the firing, and I went back
to He down in my room. There I fell asleep,
and the shelling of the town did not wake me,
though the house next to me was hit. About
2.30, in my sleep I heard my name, and found
Desmond calling me loudly in the street outside.
He said : " We have lost two young officers,
L. and W. Come out and find them at once. The
Germans are coming into the town, and we shaU
have to clear out instantly." I said to him : "I
don't know either L. or W. by sight, and if I did
it is far too dark to see them." " Well," he said,
" you must do your best." I went out and walked
about the town, which was still being shelled, but
I was far more afraid of being run over in the
darkness than of being hit. Troops were pouring

26 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

out in great confusion— foot, artillery, transport
mixed— and there were great holes in the road
made by the German shells. I met Eric, who
said : " Come along with me to Guise " ; also
the driver of a great transport wagon, who said
he had no orders, and begged me to come with
him : he felt lonely without an officer.

It was quite clear to me that it was impossible
to find these two officers. I met Desmond by
Headquarters and told him so ; he said : " Very
well, fall in and come along." The regiment
passed at that moment. Hubert and Tom told
me to fall in, but I would not leave Moonshine,
though there did not seem to be much more chance
of finding her than W. and L. My groom and
servant had both disappeared. The houses were
all locked or deserted, I battered on a door with
my revolver. Two old ladies timidly came out
with a light. They pointed to a house where I
could find a man, but at that moment a French-
man came up, whom I commandeered. I went
ofiE to Headquarters to see if a sergeant was left.

There was nobody there. The dinner left looked
like Belshazzar's feast. I had a good swig of
beer from a jug. My saddle and sword had gone.
I went out with the Frenchman and saw that
the troops were nearly all out of the town. I deter-
mined to stay, if necessary, and hide until I could
find my horse, but the Frenchman turned up
trumps and we found her. We were terrified of
her heels in the dark. I thanked the old ladies and
apologized for having threatened them with my
revolver. There was no question of riding Moonshine
bare-back. I went back to get a saddle, below
Headquarters, but the Germans were there, so the

LANDKBCIES 27

Frenchman swore. It was too dark to see, but they
weren't our men. I took her back to where the
medical officer was billeted. He had been waiting
with a dying man and was about to leave the town.
I asked him to let one of his men lead her, and went
forward to see if I could get a saddle. In this I
failed. As I got out of the town dawn was breaking.
For some obscure reason one of our gunners fired
a shell. Everybody said : "I suppose that is
to teU them where we are." We all thought that
the German artillery fire must catch us going
out of the town. For the second time they let
us off. By that time we had grasped the fact
that they could outmarch us, but we did not know
that they had come on motor-cars, and ascribed
their greater pace to what we believed to be the
fact — that we were entirely unsupported by the
French. My regiment were a good long way
ahead. I joined an officer who was leading a
detachment, and he was anxious that I should stay
with him. As I walked along, pretty footsore,
an unshaven man came up and asked me if I liked
this sort of thing better than politics. I didn't
say much, as I had heard the soldiers discussing
politicians in the dark at Landrecies, cursing all
pohticians every time a shell fell, and saying :
" Ah, that's another one we owe to them. Why
aren't they here ? " He offered me a horse. He
was the Colonel of the Irish Horse, Burns-Lindow.
I took the horse gratefully, which had a slight
wound on its shoulder and was as slow as an ox,
poor beast. This drove me almost mad after
Moonshine, and, meeting another officer, I fell
into conversation with him. I asked if he saw
anything wrong in my taking the saddle off this

28 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

horse and putting it on to Moonshine, when I found
her. He said it was certainly irregular, and I
then recognized who he was. I got away from
him as soon as possible and, finding another officer
of the Irish Horse, persuaded him to help me to take
ofiE the saddle and put it on to Moonshine, whom
I had regained fairly chastened. I found the
Colonel, and we rode on to Etreux. Here we brought
down an aeroplane after it had dropped a bomb
on us. The officers tried to prevent the men
shooting, but the noise made their commands
useless. The CO. was very angry. He said :
" I will teach you to behave like a lot of . ,. . s.
Off you go and dig trenches." One of the men
said as we marched off : "If that was a friendly
aeroplane, what did it want to drop that bomb
on us for ? " He was quite right. It had done
this, and the shell had fallen about thirty yards
away. Our fire prevented us hearing it. Stephen
came down in a Balaclava helmet and said that
officers were the best shots at aeroplanes because
pheasants had taught them to swing in firing.

At Etreux we were ordered to dig trenches,
which we did. After this I slept under a hedge,
where Bernard, the Frenchman, gave me some
rum, which was very welcome, as it was raining.
At about 9 o'clock I felt Hubert, very angry,
thumping me, as he thought I was a private who
had taken his haversack to lie on.
' The next morning everybody was in tremendous
spirits. They had slept very well in the trenches
and those outside had been housed in nests of
straw. The officers were called up and spoken
to by the Colonel. He read out a message from
JofEre to say that the British Army had saved

THE RETREAT 39

France. He told us that the retreat had been
inevitable and had given the French time to take
up adequate defensive positions. The impression
I think most of us had was that we had been used
as a bait. Then we were once more ordered to
retire.

As I rode along in the morning going to La F6re
an aeroplane passed fairly close over us ; everybody
fired at it at once ; thousands of rounds must have
been fired, and I found it useful in teaching Moon-
shine to stand fire. She took her first lesson well,
though she broke up the formation of half a company.
We often saw aeroplanes, and they were nearly
always shot at, whether they belonged to friend
or foe.

That day we marched to Origny, where we camped
below a hill with a steep chff to it. I went into
the town and bought eggs, brandy, etc. There
was every kind of rumour about : that we were
completely suirounded by the Germans ; that
there were millions of them in front and behind ;
also that there had been a great French defeat
at Charleroi.

We were all very joUy. At night the artillery
poured past with the sound of a great cataract.
We lay down on the hiUside, and every man going
to get straw to cover him walked over Tom's face,
who swore himself almost faint with rage. All
our kit had been lost at Landrecies, and many of
us had not great-coats.

We started at dawn ; but had to wait to let other
troops pass us. I was sent back to look for com-
municating files of the regiment that had been
lost. I found them with difficulty and brought
them on. The Germans were too near to us. That

30 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

day we marched through great avenues of tall
poplars and through a pleasant smiling country
to La Fere. Moonshine began to grow lame. I
stayed behind to get food for my company and
lost the regiment, only finding them again after
long wanderings and with the greatest difficulty.
We camped near La Ffere. The regiment forgot
its tiredness in a hunt after a strange horse which
strayed into our camp and which Eric finally captured
for the transport. Both Desmond and he tried
hard to take my saddle from me ; for the saddle
which I had first put upon Moonshine was Hickie's
harness. Then Hickie was invaUded, and I lost
his saddle at Landrecies and then got the saddle
from B. L., Colonel of the Irish Horse. I beat
them in argument, but thought they were quite
capable of taking the saddle in spite of that.

We stopped some time to smoke and rest. The
men were drawn up on a torrid cornfield. Valentine
was overdone. He volunteered, like the man in
the Bible, to get water. Finding that he would
have to wait in a long queue, he returned without
the water. Tom's anger beat all records. A depu-
tation from another regiment came and asked him
to repeat what he had said. They were surprised
to find that it was his brother-in-law who had
provoked these comments.

I saw John Manners and George Cecil, and
gave them cigarettes. Near a great factory of
some kind we marched past Sir Douglas Haig.
I hurried past him.

La F6re was an old fortified city. We were
told we were to have a rest and the next day's
march was to be a very short one. We camped
near Berteaucourt. It was very hot. I hobbled

THE RETREAT 31

up to the village to get provisions, and found a
French girl, the daughter of a farmer, who talked
fair English. Near the village I spoke to a number
of people. I told one peasant I thought it was
a mistake that everybody should fly from their
houses if they did not mean to clear out altogether,
and that it was an invitation to the Germans to
loot and bum. He said : " Monsieur, I quite
agree with you. Moi, je vais agir en patriote
quand Us viendront. Je vais tout bonnement
descendre dans ma cave." The next day (the
29th) we camped above the village of Pasly. On
the road I got boracic cream for my horse's cracked
heel. We passed through a big town, Coucy,
crowded with curious, frightened, silent people.
It had a very fine castle. I bought some cigarette-
holders, with cinema pictures inside, for the Colonel.
People pressed chocolate and all they could get
into my hands, taking payment unwillingly. Moon-
shine lost a shoe, but I managed to get her shod
there. Reluctantly at Pasly I lent her to Robin,
who went off to post his men in the village. The
moment he had gone the O.C. sent for me and told
me we had got outside the area of our maps, and
asked if I could get him a map. I started off at
once to walk to Soissons. When he discovered
where I was going he said it was out of the question ;
so I walked down to Pasly either to get a map there
or to take the Maire's carriage and drive to Soissons.
In Pasly there was a tenth-rate Maire and a school-
master. They provided me with an ancient map,
the date of which was 1870. It did not even mark
the monument of the schoolmasters whom the
Germans had lightheartedly shot on their last
visit to the village.

S2 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

I found a half-wit, and paid him to carry up some
wine, bread and eggs.

We camped above a quarry and talked of what
was going to happen. There seemed only two
alternatives. One was that we should get into
Paris and take first-class tickets home to England,
and the other that we should stay and get wiped
out. For we still saw no Frenbh troops ; we still
believed ourselves to be 100,000 against a force
of anything from one to two miUions.

Eric had met a Lancer who had been full of the
German atrocities. I met him and talked to
him afterwards. His stories sounded improbable.
Eric had also seen an extraordinary thing happen
that morning. He had seen an aeroplane which
we were bombarding. It was flying in the blue
sky when it was struck. It was there, and then it
was not. It just disappeared.

August Z\st. We got up fairly early, and I
rode with Eric past caves in which there were
houses and quarries down the steep hillside to the
plain of Soissons. It was a beautiful morning,
very peaceful, and the air was scented. There
was bright sunhght over the marching soldiers
and the fields of green, taU grass. The CO. told
me that our camping ground was at Coeuvxe.
I asked leave to ride into Soissons and see if I
could not get clean shirts and handkerchiefs to
replace what we had lost at Landrecies.

Soissons was hke a sunlit town of the dead. Four
out of five houses were shut. Most of the weU-to-do
people had gone. It was silent streets and bhnd
houses. The clattering which Moonshine made
on the cobbles was almost creepy. I stopped first
of all at a saddler's^^shop and tried to get a proper

THE EETREAT S8

bridle. The saddler was a rough democratic
Frenchman, not a bad fellow, the sort of man who
made the Repubhc. He took me to a boot shop
which was ray first need, where the people were
very kind, and I bought a capital pair of boots
for twelve francs. I went into the " Lion d'Or."
They refused me a stall for Moonshine on the ground
that the landlord and all his family were going.
I insisted, and bought her some fodder, also some
food for myself. They drove hard bargains.

Out of doors I met some EngUsh officers having
breakfast. They had only just arrived. I left
a man called Gustave to look after Moonshine
and went out to spend a most laborious morning
of shopping. After going to many different shops
I found a bazaar like a mortuary. With two old
women and a boy. They said to me : " Take
whatever you want and pay as much or as little
as pleases you. If the Germans come we shall
set fire to this place." They pressed every kind
of souvenir on me, but it was extraordinary, with
plenty lying roiuid, how difficult it was to get
what one needed. I was buying mostly for
other people. It was Hke being turned loose in
Selfridge's — boots, scissors, pocket-knives, electric
torches, watches, bags, vests, etc. I also bought
an alpenstock, as I had lost my sword and thought
it might be useful as a hght bayonet.

I then went and had a bath, the first proper one
since England. The heat was very great. I felt
dirty and wanted to shave my beard, as the men said
every day that I became more hke King Edward.
I then intended to go to the Cathedral, but found
the few Enghsh soldiers, in the town moving out
hurriedly. They said the Germans were coming

4

34 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

in an hour. So I gave up the Cathedral and went
and had hinch in a jolly httle inn. There were
some very excitable Frenchmen, one of whom
asked me if I would sell him a lucky sixpence for
a franc which he could wear round his neck. I
suppose he was really pathetic ; at the moment
he only irritated me. He said : " J'ai confiance —
meme s'ils vont a Paris j'aurais confiance." " But,"
he said, " where is the French Army ? " They
were all saying that by this time.

I went back to my boot shop. All the women
there were crying. They insisted upon giving
me some wine. At the hotel I found the hotel-
keeper and his family going off, squeaking with
anger at the ostler, Gustave, who was helping me
to carry all I had bought in two great bags. The
weight was very oppressive in the heat, and I
was afraid of making Moonshine's tender foot
worse on the hard road. Before I had got outside
the town I had to get off and readjust everything,
with the help of some very kind French people.
While I was doing this, Westminster, with Hugh
Dawnay, drove up in his beautiful car. I suggested
his taking my things on to Coeuvre. He said,
unfortunately he had other orders, and wanted to
laxow where to lunch. I told him where I had
lunched, but said that he would probably have
to share his lunch with the Germans if he went
into the town, as they must now be close
behind us.

Riding on, I met some French troops evacuating
the town and with them a man of my regiment,
who had hurt his knee. He could not walk, so
I put him under the charge of a French sergeant.
While I was talking to him t^o other men of my

THE EETREAT 35

regiment came up. They had fallen out on the
previous day and had had nothing to eat since
yesterday's breakfast. I took them into a French
house, where the people were very hospitable ;
gave them food at once and insisted on giving
them champagne, which they said was " dechampa-
gnise." The men ate hke wolves. One of them was
a splendidly built fellow, called Sheridan.

Then we marched slowly on in the heat, for
about two hours, when Sheridan said : " What
is it is happening yonder, sir ? " pointing to the
horizon about a mile away. Soon rifle fire broke
out, and Sheridan said : " There are Uhlans coming
down the road." There was a wood on our left,
and we made preparations to get into this ; the
other man had fallen behind. They were both
very done, but Sheridan was like a different man
at the prospect of a fight. Our people, however,
or rather the French, drove the German cavalry
back at this moment, and we went on quietly. I
was glad to be able to turn to the left, as the fighting
on our right was pretty hot and I was weighed
down with all the extra things I carried.

I fell into conversation with a medical officer,
and asked him if he knew where Coeuvre was.
Then an R.A.M.C. Colonel came up and looked
at my kit very suspiciously. He asked me who
the General in command of the Division was. I
said I had forgotten his name; I could not keep
my head filled with these details. He said to me :
" You don't seem to know who you are." I said
to him : " I know who I am ; I don't know who
you are, I don't want to. I hope to God I shall
never see you again. Go to hell and stay there."
This made him angry, and he said : " Your

36 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

regiment is ahead on the left, but the Germans
are in front of you, if you wish to rejoin
them," pointing in the direction from which I had
come.

All this time I had been waiting for Sheridt^n
and other now numerous stragglers behind me,
and at this point I turned round and rode off to
see what had happened, thoroughly irritated with
the R.A.M.C. Colonel. This apparently convinced
him that I really was a German, as the engagement
in the rear was going on fairly close, and he C9,me
after me with a Major of the K.R.R., who was
unhappy. He said : " Will you come with me
to my Colonel ? " I said : " I will go with you
anywhere to get away from this fussy httle man,
but if you think that a German spy would come
on a racehorse, dressed like the White Knight,
with an alpenstock, you are greatly mistaken."
He promised to have my stragglers looked after,
and then I rode up to his regiment with him, when
Blank came up and shook hands. We had not
met since Eton. He cleared my character. After
that I went on as fast as I could. I picked up
some more of my regiment, including a sergeant
who had sprained his ankle. I told him to ride,
but found a motor and put him in that.

Soon we were stopped by a sentry in a wood,
as it was growing dark. He said that his ofl&cer
had told him to stop all on the road and to send
for him. Then came General Monro, who was
also stopped. He was with a sad man. He forced
his way through, and I asked permission to take
on the men of my regiment. He told me that
I should find my regiment at Soucy, and gave
me the permission I wanted. In a few moments

COMPlilGNE 37

1 met the officer who had had us stopped. He
said the Germans were very close to us. We
could hear firing near by.

I reached my regiment as night was falling.
They were delighted with my arrest. We spent
our last night very comfortably, though there wets
heavy dew. Tom, who had been frightfully over-
done, always carrying rifles, was recovering, and
every one was cheerful and very keen to have a
fight. Until now only Hickie had been invalided.
The rum at night after a long march made a wonder-
ful difference. The men got in very tired, footsore,
cold and hungry, and had to sleep on the wet ground.
A tot of rum sent them to sleep, and sent them
to sleep feeling warm. Teetotalism on the march
is an excellent thing, better still to drink nothing,
but that nip at night made the difference between
health and sickness, comfort and misery.

September 1st. The next morning we got up at

2 o'clock. The Army was passing all round us
already. It was like the sound of deep, slow
rivers. For the first and last time we took a
wrong turning, only for a couple of hundred yards.
This was the only mistake I saw at all in the
long march. After two hours we halted, and S.
and I sat under a dripping tree and talked about
the West Country. At the beginning S. had said
to me : "I shall be very disappointed if I go
home without seeing a fight, but the worst of it
is you can't make an omelette without breaking
eggs, and I don't want to see my friends killed."
I said to him : " You are going to get your
omelette all right now." Some constituents passed
me. They said : " This be terrible dangerous.
Do'ee come along with we."

38 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Moonshine would eat nothing, and this worried
me. I had become very fond of her.

At about 6 o'clock we halted on what I knew to
be a tragic plain. In my mind I associate this
plain with turnips, though I am not sure that any
grew there. There was stubble, high and wet
lucerne, and a mournful field where corn had been
cut but not carried. We sat about on the wet,
muddy ground for breakfast, while a thin, dismal
rain feU.

The CO. called us round and gave us our orders.
He said : " We are required to hold this wood
until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We may have
to fight a rearguard action until a later hour if
there is a block in the road. We are to retire upon
Rond de la Heine." After this we breakfasted on
hot cocoa; it tasted of vaseline or parafiin, but
it was warm.

It was apparent that if the First Division took
long over their luncheon we should be wiped out.
By this time every one had got their second wind,
their feet were hard and they were cheerful. Jumbo
said he could go on walking for ever. I talked
to Alex and agreed that we had seen a great deal
of fun together. He had said, while we were crossing
the Channel, that it was long odds, not, of course,
against some of us going back, but against any
particular one of us seeing it through. This was
now visibly true ; we believed that we were three
divisions against twenty-one or even twenty-eight
German divisions. I wrote two letters, one of
them a eulogy of Moonshine. I went to Desmond,
asking him to post them. He said crossly : " You
seem to think that Adjutants can work miracles.
Charles asks for letters under fire, you want to

COMPIBGNE 39

post them on the battlefield. It is quite useless
to write letters now."

He then borrowed some of my paper and wrote
a letter. I have the picture in my mind of Desmond
constantly sitting, in very tidy breeches, writing
and calling for sergeants. We had little sleep.
He never seemed to sleep at all. He was woken
all the time and was always cheerful. We had
nothing to do for a bit, and I read scraps about
cemeteries from Shakespeare, to irritate the others.
They remained cheerful. Then we moved off to
the wood. Nobody had any illusions about the
immediate future. One man said to me : "I
may live to see many battles ; I think I shall,
for I am very keen on my profession, but I shall
never forget this plain or this morning." It must
have been about 7.30 when we went into the wood.
No. 4 held the extreme right ; they were protected
by a wall, which they loopholed, and a wire fence
outside. No. 3 was next on a road that ran
through the heart of the wood to Rond de la Reine.
I did not see Tom ; I thought I was sure to see
him some time in the morning. Stubbs was behind
No. 3, down in the vUlage (I forget the name).
The CO. said to me : "I want you to gallop
for me to-day, so stick to me." I lost him at once
in the wood behind No. 4, but rode right down to
a deserted farm and, swinging to my right, found
him at the cross-roads.

I had seen a good deal of him the last days.
He had a very attractive personality, and it was a
delight to hear him talk about anything. I asked
him what chance he thought we had of getting
more than half of us away. He said he thought
a fairly good chance. Then he said to me : " How

4:0 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Is your rest-cure gettihg on now ? There is very
little that looks like manoeuvres in the milletmium
about this, is there ? " I had told him some time
before that I looked upon this expedition as a
rest-cure, as in some ways it was. We talked
about Ireland and Home Rule, riding outside the
wood. The grey, damp mist had -gone and the
day was beautiful.

He sent me first to Hubert, Second-in-Command,
with the order that in the retreat every officer was
to retire down the main road, with the exception of
Stubbs, who was to retire as he liked. I imagine
that he was afraid that men would be lost in the
wood. By this time the firing had begun, some
way off, but our men could see the Germans coming
over the rising land. The CO. ordered me to find
Colonel Pereira of the Coldstream Guards and teU
him that, as soon our own troops, now fighting
the Germans in front of him, would faU back
through his lines, after this he was to fall back
himself.

I went off at a hand gallop, and had got haH-
way there, with the wood on my left and open
land on my right, when the Germans began shooting
at about three-quarters of a mile. Our men were
firing at them from the wood, and I felt annoyed
at being between two fires and the only thing
visible to amuse our men and the Germans. I
turned into the wood, and, galloping down a sandy
way, found the road filled with refugees with
haunted faces. We had seen crowds of refugees
for days, but I felt sorrier for these. I suppose
it was that the Germans were so very near them.
I gave my message to Pereira, who advised me to
go back through the wood, but I knew the other

COMPlfiGNE 41

way and thought I should soon be past the German
fire. I had not, however, counted on their advancing
so quickly. When I came to the edge of the wood
they were firing furiously — shrapnel, machine-gun
and rifle fire. Our men had excellent cover, and
were answering. I then tried to make my way
through the wood, but it was abominably rough.
There were ferns and brambles waist-high, and
great ditches ; the wood was very beautiful with
its tall trees, but that, at the moment, was irrelevant.
Moonshine stood like a goat on the stump of a tree
that made an island among the ditches, and I
turned back to take the way by the open fields.
When I got outside the fire had grown very bad. I
raced for an orchard that jutted out of the wood.
BuUets hummed and buzzed. Coming to it, I found
that there was wire round it. I then popped at
full speed, like a rabbit, into the wood again, through
a thicket, down an enormous ditch, up the other
side, bang into some barbed wire, which cut my
horse. It was like diving on horseback. I turned
round and galloped delicately out again, riding
full tut round the orchard.

I found the Colonel, who was standing Under
shelter at the cross-roads to the left of the road,
facing the enemy, that led through the heart of the
wood. He mounted the bank and watched the
Germans advancing. I sat under the bank with M.
and Alex. The German shells began to fall close to
us, knocking the trees about in the wood. There
were some sergeants very excited and pleased at
the idea of a fight. They said : " Now has come
the time for deeds, not words." They felt that they
were the men of the moment.

We considered whether the Germans were likely

42 MONS, ANZAC, AND ZUT

to charge down the road along which I had come,
but thought we could hold them effectively in
check from our corner and that the fire from the
wood would reach them.

It was, I suppose, now about 10.30. Desmond,
the Colonel and I rode back into the big, green
wood. It was very peaceful. The sun was shining
through the beech-trees, and for a bit the whole
thing seemed unreal. The CO. talked to the men,
telling them to reserve their fire till the Germans
were close on them. " Then you will kill them
and they won't get up again," That made them
laugh. The German advance began very rapidly.
The Coldstreamers must have begun falling back
about this time. The Germans came up in front
and on our left flank. There was a tremendous
fire. The leaves, branches, etc., rained upon one.
One's face was constantly fanned by the wind
from their bullets. This showed how bad their
fire was. My regiment took cover very well, and
after the first minute or two fired pretty carefully.
Moonshine was startled to begin with by the fire,
but afterwards remained very still and confidential.
Desmond did not get ofi his horse ; he told me
to lead my horse back into the wood and then
come back to the firing line. The Colonel then
told me to gallop up to the Brigadier to say that
the retreat was being effectively carried out ;
that there were two squadrons advancing and
he did not know what force of infantry. In this
estimate he was very much out, as subsequent
events proved. Eric, now at home wounded, said
to me : " The Germans seemed hardly to have
an advance guard ; it was an army rolling over
us." When I found the Brigadier he wanted

COMPi:fcaNE 43

to know if the CO. seemed happy about things.
I said I thought on the whole he did. There were
bullets everywhere and men falling, but the fire
was still too high. One bullet in about half a
million must have hit a man. I returned to the
Colonel. Our men had then begun to retire down
the main road to Rond de la Reine. A galloper
came up and, as far as I heard, said that we were
to hang on and not retreat yet. This officer was,
I think, killed immediately after giving his message.
The Colonel said that the Coldstreamers had already
begun to retreat, that we couldn't hold on there,
but must go back to the position we had left. We
were ordered to resume the position which Hubert
had been told to leave. The Germans were by
this time about 250 yards away, firing on us with
machine-guns and rifles. The noise was perfectly
awful. In a lull the CO. said to the men : "Do
you hear that ? Do you know what they are
doing that for ? They are doing that to frighten
you." I said to him : " If that's all, they might
as weU stop. As far as I am concerned, they
have succeeded, two hours ago."

The men were ordered to charge, but the order
was not heard in the noise, and after we had held
this position for some minutes a command was
given to retreat. Another galloper brought it,
who also, I think, was shot. Guernsey, whom
I met with his company, asked me to gallop back
and tell Valentine he must retire his platoon ;
he had not received the order. I found Valentine
and got off my horse and walked him some yards
down the road, the Germans following. He, like
everybody else, was very pleased at the calm way
the men were behaving.

44 MONS, ANZAC, AND KlTT

I mounted and galloped after the Colonel, who
said : "If only we could get at them with the
bayonet I believe one of our men is as good as
three of theirs." He started in the direction of
the Brigadier. Men were now falling fast. I
happened to see one man drop with a ba,yonet
in his hand a few yards off, and reined in my horse
to see if I could help him, but the CO. called me
and I followed him. The man whom I had seen
was Hubert, though I did not know it at the time.
The CO. said : " It is impossible now to rescue
wounded men ; we have all we can do." He
had a charmed life. He raced from one place to
another through the wood ; cheering the men
and chaflfing them, and talking to me ; smoking
cigarette after cigarette. Under ordinary con-
ditions one would have thought it mad to ride
at the ridiculous pace we did over the very broken
ground, but the bullets made everything else
irrelevant. At about 1 o'clock we went up to
the Brigadier at the corner of the road. The
fighting there was pretty hot. One of the men
told the Colonel that Hubert was killed. The
Colonel said : " Are you sure ? " The man said :
" Well, I can't swear." I was sent back to see.
The man said he was about 400 yards away, and as
I galloped as hard as I could, G. called to me :
" To the right and then to the left." As I raced
through the wood there was a cessation of the
firing, though a number of shots came from both
sides. They snapped very close. I found Hubert
in the road we had been holding. I jumped off
my horse and put my hand on his shoulder and
spoke to him. He must have been killed at once,
and looked absolutely peaceful. He cannot have

COMPlilGNE 45

suffered at all. I leant over to see if he had letters
in his pocket, when I heard a whistle 25 or 30 yards
behind me in the wood. I stood up and called :
" If that is an Englishman, get outside the wood
and up to the corner like hell ; you will be shot if
you try and join the rest through the wood. The
Germans are between us." I bent over to pick
up Hubert's bayonet, when again a whistle came
and the sound of low voices, talking German.
I then thought the sooner I was away the better.
As I swung into the saddle a shot came from just
behind me, "missing me. I rode back as fast as
Moonshine could go. The lull in the firing had
ceased, and the Germans were all round us. One
could see them in the wood, and they were shooting
quite close. The man who finally got me was
about 15 to 20 yards away ; his bullet must have
passed through a tree or through Bron's great-
coat, because it came into my side broken up.
It was like a tremendous punch. I galloped straight
on to my regiment and told the Colonel that Hubert
was dead. He said : "I am sorry, and I am sorry
that you are hit. I am going to charge." He had
told me earlier that he meant to if he got the chance.
I got off and asked them to take on my horse.
Then I lay down on the ground and an R.A.M.C,
man dressed me. The Red Cross men gave a
loud whistle when they saw my wound, and said the
buUet had gone through me. The fire was frightfully
hot. The men who were helping me were crouching
down, lying on the ground. While he was dressing
me a horse — ^his, I suppose — was shot just behind
us. I asked them to go, as they could do me no
good and would only get killed or taken themselves.
The doctor gave me some morphia, and I gave

46 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

them my revolver. They put me on a stretcher,
leavmg another empty stretcher beside me. This
was hit several times. Shots came from all directions,
and the fire seemed to be lower than earlier in the
day. The bullets were just above me and my
stretcher. I lost consciousness for a bit ; then I
heard my regiment charging. There were loud cries
and little spurts of spasmodic shooting ; then
everything was quiet and a deep peace fell upon
the wood. It was very dreamlike.

It is really very difficult to reconstruct this fight.
I think every man's attention was fixed like iron
on doing his own job, otherwise they would all
have noticed more. I carry in my mind a number
of very vivid pictures — Desmond on his horse,
Valentine and I discussing fatalism, the CO.
smoking cigarettes in the cinema holders that
I had bought for him a few days before.

As I lay on the stretcher a jarring thought came
to me. I had in my pocket the flat-nosed bullets
which the War Office had served out to us as revolver
ammunition. They are not dum-dum bullets, but
they would naturally not make as pleasant a wound
as the sharp-nosed ones, and it occurred to me
that those having them would be shot. I searched
my pockets and flung mine away. I did not dis-
cover one which remained and was buried later
on,^— but neither did the Germans. It was first
hearing German voices close by that jogged my
memory about these bullets, and the Germans
were then so close that I felt some difficulty in
throwing the bullets away. The same idea must
have occurred to others, for later I heard the
Germans speaking very angrily about the flat
bullets they had picked up in the wood, and say-

PRISONEES 47

ing how they would deal with any one in whose
possession they were found.

The glades became resonant with loud, raucous
German commands and occasional cries from
wounded men. After about an hour and a half,
I suppose, a Gernlan with a red beard, with the
sun shining on his helmet and bayonet, came up
looking like an angel of death. He walked round
from behind, and put his serrated bayonet on
the empty stretcher by me, so close that it all but
touched me. The stretcher broke and his bayonet
poked me. I enquired in broken but polite German
what he proposed to do next ; after reading the
English papers and seeing the way he was handling
his bayonet, it seemed to me that there was going
to be another atrocity. He was extraordinarily
kind and polite. He put something under my
head ; offered me wine, water and cigarettes.
He said : " Wir sind kamaraden." Another soldier
came up and said : " Why didn't you stay in
England — ^you who made war upon the Boers ? "
I said : " We obeyed orders, just as you do ;
as for the Boers, they were our enemies and are
now our friends, and it is not your business to
insult wounded men." My first friend then cursed
him heartily, and he moved on.

The Germans passed in crowds. They seemed
like steel locusts. Every now and then I would
hear : " Here is an officer who talks German,"
and the crowd would swerve in like a steel eddy.
Then : " Schnell Kinder ! " and they would be
off. They gave a tremendous impression of light-
ness and iron. After some hours, when my wound
was beginning to hurt, some carriers came up to
take me to a collecting place for the wounded.

48 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

These men were rather rough. They dropped
me aiid my stretcher once, but were cursed by an
officer. They then carried me some distance, and
took me ofiE the stretcher, leaving me on the ground.
The Germans continued to pass in an uninterrupted
stream. One motor cyclist, but with a bayonet
in his hand, was very unpleasant. He said : "I
would like to put this in your throat and turn it
round and round," waving it down to my nose. That
sort of thing happened more than once or twice,
but there were always more friends than enemies,
though as night fell the chance of being left without
friends increased. As it grew dark, I got rather
cold. One of the Germans saw this, covered me
with his coat and said : " Wait a moment, I
will bring you something else." He went off,
and, I suppose, stripped a dead Englishman and
a dead German. The German jersey which he
gave me had no holes in it ; the Englishman's
co^it had two bayonet cuts.

The wounded began to cry dreadfully in the
darkness. I found myself beside Robin, who was
very badly wounded in the leg. The Germans
gave me water when I asked for it, but every time
I drank it made me sick. At, I suppose, 9.30
or 10 p.m. they took us off into an ambulance
and carried us to a house that had been turned
into a hospital. I was left outside, talking to a
Dane who was very anti-German, though he was
serving with them as a Red Cross man. He cursed
them loudly in German. He said it was monstrous
that I hadn't been attended to, that the Germans
had had a defeat and would be beaten. I said :
" Yes, it's all true, but please stop talking, because
they'll hear you and punish me."

PEISONEES 49

Just before l2 o'clock they carried me into the
hospital on to the operating table, and dressed my
wound quickly.

Then I was helped out to an outhouse and lay
beside Robin. It was full of English and German
wounded. They gave us one drink of water and
then shut and locked the door and left us for the
night. One man cried and cried for water lintil
he died. It was a horrible night. The straw was
covered with blood, and there was never a moment
when men were not groaning and calling for help.
In the morning the man next to Robin went off
his head and became animal with pain. I got
the Germans to do what was possible for him.
I asked the Germans to let me out, and they helped
me outside into a chair, and I talked to an officer
called Brandt. He sent a telegram to the German
authorities to say that Robin and I were lightly
wounded, and asking them to let our families
know. He would not let me pay. I would have
liked to have done it for every one, but that wasn't
possible. They took us away in an ambulance
at about 11 o'clock. It was a beautiful September
day, very hot indeed. The heat in the covered
ambulance was suffocating, and Robin must have
suflEered horribly. He asked me the German for
" quick," and when I told him, urged the Germans
on. There were great jolts and . . .

At Viviers I found Shields, who said to me :
" Hullo, you wounded, and you a volunteer, too?" —
as if a volunteer ought to be immune from wounds.
We were carried upstairs and told that Valentine
and Buddy, whom I had last met under the cedara,
were in the same hospital. Valentine had the
point of his elbow shot away just after I had left

5

50 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

him. He raised his hand to brush a wasp ofiE
his neck, and only remembered pitching forward
when a bullet struck his elbow. He woke up in
a pool of blood. A German came up and took the
flask of brandy that I had given him after my
visit to Soissons. He gave Valentine a drink,
and then, when Valentine had said he did not
want any more, swigged the whole of the rest off.
It was enough to make two men drunk, solidly,
for hours. Later, five Germans came up to Valentine
and ragged him. One of them kicked him, but
an officer arrived, took all their names, promised
Valentine they should be punished, and attached
an orderly to him for the night. Buddy was badly
wounded in the back and arm. He found his
servant in the church at Viviers. Then we all
met at the house in Viviers. The doctors gave
Robin and me a strong dose of morphia. That
afternoon a German doctor, whose name was HiU-
sparck, came in and woke me. He gave me a
gold watch with a crest on it, and a silver watch
and a purse of gold (£8 in it). He said that a
Colonel to whom the watch belonged had been
buried close by in the village of Haraman, and asked
me if I could say who he was. We heard that
the Colonel had been killed, and I imagined it must
have been him, but we could not tell, as apparently
every single man of the seventy odd who had
charged with him had been killed. The doctor
left this watch with me. In the hospital we believed
that the General of the Division, Monro, and
also our own Brigadier, General Scott Kerr, were
wounded, and that the Colonel and T. were killed ;
Hubert we knew was killed.

Our experiences on the field were all the same.

PKISONEES 51

We were all well treated, though occasionally we
were insulted. In hospital an old oher-stadt was
in command of the doctors. He was very good
to us. The English doctors were W., in command,
S. next, Rankin and Shields. They were all good
doctors. W., Rankin and Shields were excellent
fellows. Rankin, who has been killed since, himself
wounded, was dressing the wounded on the field
and was recommended for the V.C. Shields has
been killed in the same way, and I believe would
have been recommended but that his CO. was
also killed. They were both the best sort of man
you can find.

After a couple of days I moved into Buddy and
Valentine's room. A little way down the street
there was the chateau, full of wounded Germans.
Our men were carried there to be operated upon.

W. and the other doctors who went to help
discovered that there were 311 wounded Germans
as against 92 of our own, so we didn't do
badly.

Every morning the German sentries used to
come in and talk to us. My German and Buddy's
was very weak, but we managed to get along all
right. Downstairs those who were lightly wounded
sat outside in the chairs they took from the house,
in the sunny garden. It was a fairly luxurious
house, with paper marked " F. H." I thought
it was a girls' school, for the only books we could
find were the Berger de Valence and Jules Verne.
My side was painful the first few days. Then
they cut me open and took out the bullet, which
was all in bits. It was rather hard lines on the
others to perform an operation in the room, but
I felt much better after it. The food difficulty

52 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

was rather acute. There was very little food,
and what there was was badly cooked. We lived
principally on things that S. called " chupatti " —
thick, unleavened biscuits. The men began to give
trouble. There was nob6dy in command of them.
There was an ex-comedian who was particularly
tiresome. We had to ask the Germans to punish
one man for us. About the fourth day one of
the orderlies escaped — Drummer McCoy. He
passed for four days through the German lines,
and on one occasion watched a whole Army Corps
go by from the boughs of a tree. Then he found
the French, who passed him on to the English,
where he went to the Staff and told them of us.
That is how we were picked up so quickly on
the nth.

Here is a copy of my diary for September 9th : —

The people are beginning to return, but not the
priest, who is with the Army. We want him for
the regiment. Up till this time only six of the
wounded have died. The Germans tell us every
kind of story — the United States are declaring war
on Japan, Italy on Prance, Denmark on England,
etc., etc. Also that Paris has been given twelve
hours to accept or reject the German terms, and
if the French Government is obdurate the town
will be bombarded. We are told that we are
to be taken as prisoners to Magdeburg. It is a
week since I have had a cigarette.

Thursday, September 10th. We are all very
anxious to get news home, but there is no chance.
Last night S. Herbert died. I had a Testament,
and Valentine and I found verses which W. read
over his grave. Valentine has bad pain. Three

PRISONEES 63

bones broken in his arm and the point of his elbow
gone. Buddy is better, but hit cruel hard. Robin
has a bad wound, and is very restless. They don't
like giving us morphia. Luckily I have got my
own medicine chest, which is a good thing for all
of us, as I can give the others sleeping draughts.
Last night a French cavalry patrol came within
two miles of us. Early this morning there was
rifle fire close by. It sounded in the wood that
we suppose is Haraman. We think the Germans
may evacuate this place any time. The bandages
have given out. Stores are not coming in. There
is a big aeroplane depot quite close by, and the
whole air is fuU of aeroplanes. It looks and feels
as if there might be a big battle round here soon.
They have shot an old man wandering about the
aerodrome. But he was asking for it.

9 a.m. The aeroplanes are being shifted from
the depot. Last night we heard that arms were
issued to all the wounded Germans in hospital
who could carry them. This morning the Germans
are digging trenches hard. There are Red Crosses
everywhere. The doctors want us to go down to
the cellars if we are shelled. The French women
in the village say that the French are coming.
The firing is increasing.

9.15 a.m. The German hospital across the way
is ordered to be ready to move at once.

10.25 a.m. An order has come for all prisoners
to parade at the church at 12 o'clock. The German
lightly wounded are being sent on. We are very
anxious as to whether they mean to take us too.
More of our wounded who have died are being
buried.

11.10 a.m. A German doctor has come. He

54 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

said : " They are going and taking all (of our)
prisoners, 18 (of our) lightly wounded, and leaving
25 (of their) badly -wounded." French wounded
are now coming in. We have no more bandages
at all. A German sentry with whom I had talked
has just come in. I asked him some days ago
to buy some handkerchiefs. He said : "I have
not been able to buy you any handkerchiefs, or
to get the cigarettes you wanted, but here is one
of my own handkerchiefs, which I have washed.
We have got to go."

8 jp.m. The last order is that the previous orders
are countermanded and the Germans are to stay
on ten days.

Friday, September Wih. Our English prisoners
were marched off this morning. We are full of
speculation as to what has really happened. Valen-
tine, Buddy and I are well.

10.10 a.m. There are machine-guns about four
miles away.

10.30 a.m. There is a heavy rifle fire within
a mile. It is very trying lying here in bed. We
have nothing to read except The Bajah's Heir
which V. sent to me and which has become known
as the treasure-house of fun. It is a sort of mixture
of Hymns Ancient and Modern and the Fairchild
Family.

2 p.m. There is a Maxim within a few hundred
yards of the house. Rifle volleys outside in the
garden. A rising wind and rain threatening.

3 p.m. Heavy rain. The French are visible,
advancing.

3.10 p.m. The French are here. They came
in in fine style, like conquerors ; one man first,
riding, his hand on his hip. The German sentries

FEEE MEN 55

who had been posted to protect us wounded walked
down and surrendered their bayonets. The German
doctors came to us for help. I offered to go, but
W. went. The French infantry and cavalry came
streaming through. Our wounded went out into
the pouring rain to cheer them. They got water
from our men, whose hands they kissed. The
German guns are on the skyline. The Germans
are in full retreat, and said to be cut off by the
English.

5 p.m. A heavy bombardment of the German
guns began from here. I have come upstairs
to a long low garret with skylights, in order to
leave Valentine and Buddy more room. Through
the skylight one can see every flash of the French
and German guns. The doctors all come up here
to watch with their field-glasses through my sky-
lights.

Saturday, September \2th. Yesterday, when W.
went down, he found the German doctors receiving
cavalier treatment from the French. He explained
to the French that they had treated us with the
greatest kindness ; after that the French treated
with courtesy the old ober-stadt. Shields carved
a great wooden tombstone for the thirteen men
who had died up to date. It is a month to-day
since I left England.

This afternoon Colonel Thompson, English Staff
Officer attached to General Manoury, who had been
attached to the Serbian Army through the last
war, came in. McCoy, who had escaped, had
found him and told him about us at Viviers. He
said he would take me into Villers Cotterets after
he had done some other business. We talked
a lot about the Balkans, but I finally went back

56 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

and lay down in my garret and shall not get up
again to-day.

Sunday, September \Zih. I went off with Thomp-
son this morning. We passed through the wood
where we had had the fight, and a long grave of
120 men was shown to me by McCoy.

ANZAC

1915

F

M

t'-?4%-E>, <;'VM 3!i-^-. ^-^ _ S^-Vvjl'.;- ^^-- ■

ANZAC, 1915

WHEN I was passed fit for Active Service,
after some time in hospital, I left England
for Egypt with five other officers. Four of these
had strange histories. One is, perhaps, the most
romantic figure of the war, another now governs
a great Province, while two, after many adventures,
were prisoners of war in Turkey, for different but
dreary periods.

I was sent to the East because it had been my
fortune to have travelled widely, and I had a fairly
fluent smattering of several Eastern languages. On
arriving at Gibraltar about December 14, 1914,
we heard the first news of submarines. One of
these was reported to have passed through into
the Mediterranean a few days previously.

When I reached Egypt just before Christmas,
superficially everything was calm. This calm did
not last very long. I was given Intelligence work
to do, under Colonel Clayton, who has played
a very great part in achieving our success in the
East. Reports constantly came in from Minia,
Zagazig and Tanta of Turkish and German intrigues.
General Sir J. Maxwell commanded the Forces
in Egypt. Prince Hussein had just been proclaimed
Sultan, and Egypt had been declared to be under
British protection. Rushdy Pasha was Prime
Minister and a triumvirate of Sir Milne Cheetham

61

62 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

at the Residency, Sir R. Graham as Adviser to
the Ministry of the Interior, and Lord Edward
Cecil as Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, directed
the Government.

It was difficult to believe that the Egjrptian,
who then had all the advantages of neutrals without
any of the disadvantages, really meant mischief.
Most people, I think, agreed with Lord Cromer,
and believed that his policy of making taxes light
and life easy for the Egyptian had succeeded, but
the East is never logical, as we all know, and the
natural consequence constantly does not follow
the parental cause. Mecca rose to join us after
Kut had fallen ; the rebellion in Egypt only took
place when the English had achieved a complete
victory over Turkey, and held Palestine and Syria.
I quote the following incident as an illustration
of the difficulty of sometimes following this
mentality : —

A Syrian reported to me that a great Egyptian
family, whom I wiU call the Ashakas, had con-
spired to bring 15,000 rifles into the country
and to engineer a rising. The rifles were to be
imported from the Greek islands and from Greece,
by means of Greek sponge-fishers. One of these,
who had the pleasant and appropriate name of
Son-of-the-Dagger, met me in a caf6 in an obscure
side street in Cairo. There he revealed the con-
spiracy, explaining that only the landing-place
for the arms had still to be decided upon. He
and his companions were to receive a commission
on every rifle landed, and he wanted to know what
the British Grovernment would be ready to pay
for his betrayal of his patrons.

On reporting this to the proper authorities,

EGYPT 63

I was told that they were aware of the existence
of this plot. The next day frantic messages from
the Greek came, and I met him, disturbed in his
mind. He said that the Ashakas had become
suspicious of him and the other Greeks, and that
he feared for his life. He asked to be arrested
immediately after the seizure of the arms and thrown
into prison with the Egyptians, and then to be
flogged before them, in order to convince them
that he was acting honourably by them. He
was very anxious to be paid for both pieces of
treachery, by the Egyptians and by us. On making
my report to the authorities I learned that the
Ashakas had betrayed the Greeks by denouncing
them as traitors.

The whole affair had been a result of Levan-
tine nerves. The Ashakas in thb past had been
strong Nationalists. When the war between the
Turks and ourselves broke out, in spite of the
fact that it seemed possible, and indeed likely,
that Egypt might again become a Turkish province,
their politics changed, and they hastily became
Anglophile, but their past record haunted them.
They feared the British Government almost as
much as the Turks, and yearned to prove themselves
loyal.

After much thought it appeared to them that the
simplest way of achieving this would be to supply
valuable military information to the British. That,
however, was an article which they did not possess,
and they therefore hit upon the idea of getting up
a bogus conspiracy in order to be able to denounce
it. This seemed the simplest way to safeguard
themselves, and they hurriedly adopted the plan.
The instruments that they chose were subtle

64 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Greeks, who were more proficient in the art of
intrigue than the Ashakas, and had an even more
degraded morality. It took only a few d^ys for
the Ashakas to realize the infidelity of the Greeks,
and to inform against them still more hurriedly,
but meanwhile the Greeks had spoken first. In
the end, when the hair of the Ashakas had turned
grey, they made a clean breast of the whole affair
to the British authorities, and were, I believe,
forgiven.

" Happy is the country that has no history "
is a proverb which is often untrue, but Egypt was
certainly happy, compared with the rest of the
world, early in 1915. Then history moved rapidly
towards us. The thunder of the guns in France
was no longer something remote and irrelevant. The
Turks massed across the desert, and prepared to
attack the Canal. Many of the English thought
that we were living on a sleeping volcano, but
there was general confidence, and no one doubted
our power to cope with the situation. The Turks
attacked skilfully and bravely, but the odds against
them were too heavy. They were, however, able
to shell H.M.S. Harding in the Canal, and a few
of their men swam across to Egypt. Complete
serenity reigned in Cairo. I rem,ember going to
the Opera that night. General Sir John Maxwell
was listening, quite unruffled, to the performance.
I heard a civilian say in a scandalized voice to
him : " They have gone and broken the Harding.
What next ? " To which Sir John answered :
" Well, they'll have to mend it, I suppose." Two
ladies landed at Port Said and had their train
shelled as it steamed slowly along the banks of

EGYPT 65

the Canal to Cairo. They wondered placidly if
this was the normal state of things in Egypt.

These attacks added to the labours and quick-
ened the energies of the Intelligence in Egypt,
but still there were only vague rumours to
be heard. One of these foretold that there was to
be a general rising of Islam on April 27th.

I remember long conversations with a specialist
with regard to this possibility ; he disbelieved in
it, then or at any time, for, as he said very rightly,
Islam had to contend with great difficulties from
the point of view of communications — ^waterless
deserts, impassable seas, mountain ranges, unbridged
by our telegraph. My friend, who was remarkable,
would not have an office like any other man in his
position ; he disconcerted friend and foe aUke by
changing his address every few days, and whep
one wished to see him, and after the unusual event
of catching him, he would make an appointment
such as : " The third lamp-post in the Street
of Mohammed Ali at dusk." When he had gone
beyond recall, one remembered that the Mohammed
Ali Street was several miles long, and that he had
not said at which end was the appointed lamp-
post ; so he was well qualified to speak of the
disadvantages accruing from lack of communications.

Prisoners began coming in, but not much news
was to be obtained from them. They were mostly
shattered and rather pathetic men. The first to
arrive were some escaped Syrian schoolmasters,
who had been conscripted by the Turks, and gave
a very graphic account of a hot and harassing
journey ahead of their comrades to Egypt, where
their friends and relations hved. Then came a
blind old gentleman of eighty, who fell into our

6

66 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

front-line trench. It had been his habit, every
two years, to visit his son in Egypt, and he had
not reahzed that there was a war going on.

Amongst the Turkish prisoners of the first attack
there was one old quartermaster seriously iU, whose
manners and courage made him the friend of all
his captors, but, hke the rest, he told us nothing.
There was probably more information amongst
the prisoners who had been interned, if they had
been wilhng to speak, but they were not. I met
one of these to whom fate had been unusually
cruel. He was an Albanian whose home had been
in Montenegro. When the amiable Montenegrins
seized the land of the Albanians, he had been beaten
and cast out ; thence he had gone to Turkey, but
the Albanians had been the first to attack the
Turks, and were, indeed, the main cause of the
ruin of the Ottoman Empire, so in Turkey he was
bastinadoed and thrown into prison. Somehow
he managed to escape and arrived in Egypt. In
Egypt he was arrested as a Turk, and again thrown
into prison. In prison he was continually beaten
by his feUow-prisoners, who were Tvirks, as an
Albanian and an enemy of Islam.

There were no tangible proofs of a conspiracy ;
one used sometimes to get black looks in the bazaar,
and scowls from the class of the Effendis. On the
other hand, we were very strongly supported by
men of the type of the late Sultan Hussein and
Adly Yeghen Pasha.

It would be difficult to meet a more attractive
or courteous gentleman than the late Sultan. He
was of the advanced school of enhghtened Islam ;
neither his Hterary tastes, his philosophy, nor his
pleasure in European society allowed him to forget

EGYPT 67

his own people for a moment. Adly Yeghen Psisha,
then Minister of Education, is an exceptional and
outstanding figure in Egypt, with a marked per-
sonality. The other Ministers mixed freely with
European society, and there was no sign of any-
thing but friendliness.

At the end of February I was sent on the battle-
ship Bacchante, commanded by Captain Boyle,i
which lay for about a fortnight ofE Alexandretta,
occasionally bombarding telegraphs, or wagons
that were said to be loaded with artillery wheels.
One morning we saw two carts crawUng along,
drawn by bullocks, carrying the alleged wheels
of artillery northward from Alexandretta. In
order to warn the two drivers shells were fired
from the great battleship a hundred yards ahead
of them. The men left their oxen, taking refuge
in a neighbouring ditch, while the oxen went slowly
forward alone, Hke automata. Our guns then
fired upon the carts, which were about half a mile
distant, and one of the oxen was immediately
hit. On this one of the two Turks left the ditch,
cut the wounded animal free, and continued to
lead the two carts. Again our guns fired ahead
of him to give him warning, but he went on stead-
fastly at about a mile an hour to what was certain
death. In the end he was left lying by his dead
oxen and his broken cart. We had given him
every chance that we could, and if the admiration
of a British ship for his courage could reward a
dead Anatolian muleteer, that reward was his.

Life outside Alexandretta was uneventful. Occa-
sionally a Turkish official came out to discuss various
questions that arose. He used to sway and bow
' Now Admiral Boyle, C.B., C.M.G., M.V.O.

68 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

from the tiller of his boat while I swayed and bowed
from the platform below the gangway of the
cruiser. It is perhaps worth sajdng that when I
expressed to him Captain Boyle's regret fqr the
death of the Turkish muleteer it was an event that
he would not condescend to notice.

We discovered one curious fact of natural history,
that with a searehUght you can see the eyes of
dogs or jackals at night more than half a mile
away. A previous ship had reported that men
came down to the shore with electric torches, and
it was only after some days that we discovered that
these will-o'-the-wisp appearances were in reaHty the
eyes of dogs.

But though Ufe was uneventful, it was very plea-
sant on the ship, and all were sorry when the cruise
came to an end.

I remember the last night at dinner in the ward-
room the name of a distinguished Admiral occurred
in the conversation. He was a man who had a
great reputation for capacity and also eccentricity,
that came mainly from his habit of concentrated
thinking. When he was deep in thought and his
eyes caught any bright object, he would go up
to it like a magpie and play with it. He would
sometimes go up and fiddle with the button of a
junior officer on the quarter-deck, looking at it
very attentively, to the great discomfort of the
junior officer, or even with that of a stranger to
whom he had been introduced. The legend grew
from this idiosyncrasy, that those may believe
who wish to. It was said that one night at a dance
he sat out for a long time with a girl in a black
dress. His eye caught a white thread on her
shoulder, and unconsciously while he talked he

EGYPT 69

began pulling at it. The story goes on to say
that when the girl went home she said to her mother :
" I know I went out with a vest to-night, and now
I wonder what has happened to it."

I remember at the same dinner Dr. Levick, who
had been with Captain Scott in the Antarctic voyage,
told a curious story of prophecy. He had been
to a fortune-teller atter the idea of going with
Captain Scott had occurred to him, but before
he had taken any steps. The fortune-teller gave
a description of the melancholy place where he was
to live for two years, of the unknown men who were
to be his companions, and particularly one who
had strangely flecked hair.

I returned to Cairo and office work with some
reluctance. Friends of mine and I took a house,
which somehow managed to run itseK, in Gezireh.
It was covered with Bougainvillea and flowers of
every colour, and was a dehght to see. Sometimes
it lacked servants completely, and at other times
there was a black horde. Gardeners sprang up
as if by enchantment, and made things grow almost
before one's eyes.

I quote from my diary of March 8, 1915 : —

News to-day that King Constantine won't have
Greece come in, and that Venizelos has resigned.
At a guess, this means that either Greece or King
Constantine is lost. If Constantine goes, Venizelos
might shepherd his son through his minority.

March 14, 1915. I left Luxor Tuesday night,
after a wonderful time. My guide was a Senoussi —
something-or-other Galleel. He had a tip of white
txirban hanging, which he said was a sign of his
people. He was rather like one of the Arabs out

70 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

of a Hichens book, and I expect about as genuine.
A snake-charmer came with us. He gave me the
freedom of the snakes as a man is given the freedom
of a city, but as one scorpion and two snakes —
one of them a so-to-speak soi-disant cobra —
stung and bit him during the day, it's not hkely
to be of much help to me. He did some very-
mysterious things, and called snakes from every
kind of place — one from a window in the wall,
a 6-foot long cobra, and a Coptic cook found its
old skin in the next window.

In justice to the snake-charmer it ought to be
said that he was only stung and bitten as a con-
sequence of a quarrel with an archaeologist.

In Egypt every archaeologist looks upon the
local magician or snake-charmer as his competitor,
and hates him. When the archasologist is telling
the tourist the history of Rameses II the attention
of the tourist is distracted by a half-naked man
doing the mango trick. My archaeologist friend,
irritated by the presence of the snake-charmer,
declared that his snakes were a^l doped and his
scorpions were tame town scorpions, green, and not
yellow like the country scorpions. He found a
bucohc scorpion under a stone, of the proper colour,
which instantly stung the snake-charmer ; he then
insisted upon stirring up his snakes with a stick,
with the unfortunate results that have already
been mentioned.

The Egyptian has always seemed to me harder
to understand than his neighbours. It may be
because there is less in him to understand. The
Greeks, Turka, and Arabs have all got very salient
characteristic qualities, but though the character-

EGYPT 71

istics of the Egyptians are probably as strongly
marked, they are less conspicuous to the foreigner's
eye ; in other words, the Egyptian has less in common
with the outer world than any of the Asiatic, or
even African, peoples who surround him. Lane,
in his Modern Egyptians, says that they refused
to believe that the ordinary traveller was not an
agent for the Government, because they could
not understand the desire for travel, and their
character has not changed since his day. Here is
a story of Egyptian guile and credulity: —

An Egyptian was anxious to get some job profit-
able to himself done, and he went to one of the
kavasses (guards) at the Agency for advice. The
kavass professed himself able to help. He said :
" The man for you to go to is Mr. Jones, that high
EngHsh official. He -vsdU get what you want done,
but I warn you that Mr. Jones is an expensive
man. Give me three hundred pounds, and I will
see what can be done," The three hundred pounds
was duly paid, and for a long time nothing happened.
The petitioner grew impatient and importunate,
and was eventually satisfied for the moment by
an invitation to lunch with a Levantine who passed
himself off as Mr. Jones. At luncheon the Levantine,
who was of German extraction, wore his hat, banged
his fist on the table, smoked a pipe, interrupted,
and generally acted as an Englishman abroad is
supposed by some to behave. Then occurred an
interval of inaction ; the petitioner again grew
restive, and this time he complained to the
authorities. Finally the transaction was discovered,
and the kavass was sent to gaol.

Events moved in Egypt. The Australian and
New Zealand troops poured in, and splendid

72 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

men they were. But there was little love lost
between the AustraUans and the Egjrptians, though
the British troops and the natives fraternized
occasionally. The native Egjrptian was, it must
be admitted, constantly very roughly treated, for
the average AustraUan, while he was at first apt
to resent superiority in others, felt little doubt
about his own claim to it. The AustraUan and
New Zealand Corps was commanded by General
Birdwood, and the New Zealand and Austrahan
Division by General Godley.

I joined the New Zealand Division as Interpreter
and Intelligence officer, and we all made preparations
to start early in April. I was anxious to buy a
beautiful snow-white Arab, that had won most of
the races at Cairo, from a friend of mine, but General
Godley spoke simply but firmly. " You aren't
the Duke of Marlborough," he said. " You can't
have that white pony unless he's dyed, and even
then it would wash off in any rain-storm. You
may get yourself shot, but not me." I agreed
with the less reluctance because I had found that
the pony pulled furiously and would certainly
lead any advance or retreat by many mUes.

The day for our departure approached. The
golden sunlight and tranquillity of Egypt was
tragic in its contrast to what was coming,

Every Intelligence officer was a Cassandra with
an attentive audience. In every discussion there
was, as far as I saw, unanimity between military,
naval, and poUtical officers, who all wished the
landing to take place at Alexandretta, and deplored
(not to use a stronger word) the project of the
Dardanelles, which the Turks had been given
ample time to fortify.

EGYPT 73

The heat increased, and the English officers'
wives, who had come to Egypt to be with their
husbands, were given a taste of a ferocious khamsin
that affected their complexions. In the spring
of 1915 this wind came in waves and gusts of lurid
heat. It was like a Nessus shirt, scorching the
skin and making slow fire of one's blood. After
the khamsin, which has the one advantage of
killing insects with its heat, locusts came. They
made a carpet on the ground and a shadow agaiast
the sun. Life was intolerable out of doors, and
they followed one into the recesses of the house.
A friend of mine said to me : " What on earth
had they got to grumble about in Egypt in the
time of the Pharaohs ? They had one plague
at a time then ; we are having all the lot at once."

I quote from my diary: —

Yesterday I saw Todd, who had been on the
Annie Bickmers when she was torpedoed off Smyrna.
The crew was Greek. There were five Enghshmen
on board, and a good many wounded. The Greeks
were all off at once, taking all the boats. They
had no interpreter with them. He said the English
in Smyrna were angry at being bombarded, and
came aboard with Rahmy Bey, the Vali, to com-
plain. Rahmy was always Anglophile.

Early in April Sir Ian Hamilton came and went.
He had a great review of the troops in the desert
on a glorious day. It was a very splendid sight,
and one I should have enjoyed better if I had not
been riding a mountainous roan horse that bolted
through the ghttering Staff.

Many old friends, Ock Asquith, Patrick Shaw-
Stewart, Charles Lister, and Rupert Brooke, had

74 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

come out to Egypt in the Naval Division, and we
lunched, dined, and went to the Pyramids by moon-
light.

The first week in April we made our preparations
for leaving, and I went to say good-bye to native
friends. One of them was an old Albanian Abbot
of the Bektashi sect, whose monastery was in the
living rock in a huge cave behind the Mokattan
Hills. He had a fine face and a venerable beard,
and I spent much time talking to him, drinking
his coffee, by a fountain in the cool garden outside
his home. I was sorry to say goodbye to the
delightful Zoo in Cairo, with the hawks calling
unceasingly in the sunUght, and a hundred different
birds. Another pleasure there was Said, an attractive
and intellectual hippopotamus, who performed a
number of tricks.

On April 10th I went to Alexandria to report
aboard the German prize ship Lutzow, and on the
12th we sailed. We discovered that night at dinner
that the puritanical New Zealand Government
had ordained that this boat should be a dry one,
but it made no difference to our mess, which was
very pleasant. On April 13th we made a new
discovery, that the boat was even drier than we
expected, as there was not enough water, and the
men had to shave in salt water. On AprU 15th
we came into Lemnos Harbour, with a keen wind
and a rustling deep blue sea, and white-crested
waves, with cheer on cheer from French and English
warships, from German prizes with British crews,
from submarines, and even from anchored balloons.

The next day I went ashore with a oouple of
other officers to buy donkeys, who were to carry
our kits. Mudros was not too bad a town, and

LEMNOS 75

was a very curious spectacle in those days. There
were great black Senegalese troops with filed teeth
who chased the children in play, though if the
children had known what their home habits were
the games would probably have ceased abruptly.

There were Greeks dressed in fantastic costume
and British troops of all sorts. Many old friends
from the East were there, among them Colonel
Doughty Wyhe, who in a few days was to win his
V.C. and lose a life of great value to his country.

I met a friend, Bettelheim, nicknamed " Beetle,"
whose life had been one long adventure. When
last I had seen him he had been an official in Turkey,
and in a rising had been dragged from his carriage
on Galata Bridge in Constantinople by the mob,
with his companion, the Emir Arslan. Emir Arslan
was torn to pieces, but " Beetle," with his marvellous
luck, escaped.

Many of us lunched together under a vine, drink-
ing excellent wine at a penny a glass. Everybody
was extremely cheerful, and there was great elation
in the island air. The talk was, of course, about
the landing. A friend of mine said : " This is
a terrible business ; entire Staffs will be wiped out."
He seemed to think that the Staffs were the most
important thing.

After lunch I went to see the Mayor, to help
me buy all that I wanted. He was rather shaky
with regard to his own position, as Lemnos had not
yet been recognized by us as Greek, and our recogni-
tion was contingent on the behaviour of the Greek
Government. He was a very good linguist, talking
French, a little EngUsh, Italian, Greek, Turkish
and Arabic. I think it was he who quoted to me
the story of the Khoja Nasr-ed-Din. Naar-ed-Din

76 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

was lent a saucepan by a friend ; he returned
it with another small saucepan, saying it had
produced a child. Next year the friend offered a
huge saucepan at the same date, which the friehd
considered the breeding time of saucepans. Later
on, when his friend appUed for the return of the
saucepan, Nasr-ed-Din said: "It is dead." His
friend expostulated : " How can a saucepscn die ? "
" Well," said Nasr-ed-Din, " if it can have a child,
why can't it die ? "

Lemnos itself, though then it was a pageant,
is on the whole a dreary island. The land was green,
as all lands are in the spring, but there was not the
carpet of anemones that one finds in Crete, Cyprus,
and other islands, nor was there even asphodel.

On Friday, April 16th, we heard that the Manitou
had been torpedoed, and that a number of men
had been drowned. This was not the case, though
she had had three torpedoes fired at her.

At this time we beheved that we were to make
three simultaneous attacks, the New Zealanders
taking the centre of the Peninsula. A rather
melancholy caU to arms was issued by General
Birdwood, the pith of which was that for the first
few days there would be no transport of any kind.
This made it all the more necessary to obtain the
donkeys, and with the help of the Mayor of Mudros
I bought six, and one little one for £1 as a mascot. It
was a great deal of trouble getting them on board.
The Greek whose boat I had commandeered was
very unfriendly, and I had to requisition the services
of some Senegalese troops.

Diary. April 21, 1915. Mudros. Inner Bay.
Monday, the 19th, I tried to dine on H.M.S. Baccharde^

LEMNOS 77

but failed to find her. Dined on the Arcadia.

Came back with CJommodore Keyes. . . . Met

(a journalist turned censor). He said that the
Turks had thirty 15-inch howitzers on GaUipoli,
also wire entanglements everywhere. The general
impression is that we shall get a very bad knock,
and that it may set the war back a year, besides
producing an indefinite amount of trouble in the
East.

Tuesday, April 2(iih. I went ashore to get
porters, but the Mayor was in a nervous state,
and I failed. I tried to get back in a dinghy with
a couple of Greeks, and we nearly swamped. A
gale got up. Finally I made the Imogen, tied up
by the Hussar, and at last reached my destination.
Great gale ia the night. I hope we don't suffer
the fate of the Armada. It is said that our orders
are to steam for the outer harbour at once.

It was curious to see the Imogen, once the Ambassa-
dor's yacht at Constantinople. In those days she
was treated with reverent care. The Mediterranean
had to be calmed by the finest of weather before
she travelled. Now she had to sink or swim with
the rest. Her adventures did not end at Lemnos.
Travellers may see her name written proudly on
the harsh cliffs of Muscat in the Persian Gulf, and
to-day she is probably at Kuma, the site of the
Garden of Eden.

On Thxirsday, April 22nd, I was able to get
two Greek porters, Kristo Keresteji (which being
interpreted means Kristo the Timber-merchant) and
Yanni, of the httle island of Ayo Strati. Kristo
was with me until I was invaHded in the middle
of October. He showed the greatest fidelity and

78 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

courage after the first few days. The other man
was a natural coward, and had to be sent away
when an opportunity offered, after the landing.

Diary. Friday, April 23rd. I have just seen
the most wonderful procession of ships I shall ever
see. In the afternoon we left foy the outer harbour.
The wind was blowing ; there was foam upon the
sea and the air of the island was sparkling. With
the band playing and flags flying, we steamed past
the rest of the fleet. Cheers went from one end of
the harbour to the other. Spring and summer
met. Everybody felt it more than anything that
had gone before.

After we had passed the fleet, the pageant of
the fleet passed us. First the Queen Elizabeth,
immense, beautiful lines, long, Mke a snake, str?iight
as an arrow. This time there was silence. It
was grim and very beautiful. We would rather
have had the music and the cheers. . . . This
morning instructions were given to the ofiicers
and landing arrangements made. We leave at
1.30 to-night. The AustraUans are to land flrst.
This they should do to-night. Then we land. . . .
Naval guns will have to cover our advance, and the
men are to be warned that the naval fire is very
accurate. They will need some reassuring if the
fire is just over our heads. The 29th land at Helles,
the French in Asia near Troy. This is curious,
as they can't support us or we them. The Naval
Division goes north and makes a demonstration. . . .
The general opinion is that very many boats must
be sunk from the shore. Having got ashore, we
go on to a rendezvous. We have no native guides.
. . . The politicians are very unpopular.

THE FIKST LANDING 79

The sea was very quiet between Lemnos and
Anzac on April 24th. There were one or two altera-
tions in plans, but nothing very material. We
expected to have to land in the afternoon, but this
was changed, and we were ordered to land after
the AustraUans, who were to attack at 4.30 a.m.
Some proposed to get up to see the first attack at
dawn. I thought that we should see plenty of
the attack before we had done with it, and preferred
to sleep.

Diary. SuTiday, April 25th. I got up at 6.30.
Thoms, who shared my cabin, had been up earlier.
There was a continuous roU of thunder from the
south. Opposite to us the land rose steeply in
cliflEs and lulls covered with the usual Mediterranean
vegetation. The crackle of rifles sounded and
ceased in turns. . . . Orders were given to us to
start at 8.30 a.m. . . . The tows were punctual. . . .
We were ordered to take practically nothing but
rations. I gave my sleeping-bag to Kyriakidis,
the old Greek interpreter whom I had snatched
from the Arcadia, and took my British warm and
my Burberry. . . . The tow was unpleasantly open
to look at ; there was naturally no shelter of any
kind. We all packed in, and were towed across
the shining sea towards the land fight. . . . We
could see some still figures lying on the beach to
our left, one or two in front. Some bullets splashed
round.

As we were all jumping into the sea to flounder
ashore, I heard cries from the sergeant at the back
of the tow. He said to me : " These two men
refuse to go ashore." I turned and saw Kristo
Keresteji and Yanni of Ayo Strati with mesmerized

80 MONS, ANZAQ, AND KUT

eyes looking at the plops that the bullets made
in the water, and with their minds evidently fixed
on the Greek equivalent of " Home, Sweet Home."
They were, however, pushed in, and we aU scrambled
on to that unholy land. The word was then, I
thought rather unnecessarily, passed that we were
under fire.

It was difficult to understand why the Turkish
fire developed so late. If they had started shelling
us during our landing as they shelled us later,
our losses would have been very heavy. We
frequently owed our salvation in the Peninsula
to a Turkish weakness and a Turkish mistake.
They were constantly slow to appreciate a position
and take full advantage of it, and their shrapnel
was generally fused too high. Hardly any man
who landed escaped being thumped and bumped
on different occasions by shrapnel, which would,
of course, have killed or seriously wounded him
if the burst had not been so high. I remember
on the afternoon of the first landing a sailor was
knocked down beside me, and I and another man
carried him to what shelter there was. We found
that, while the bullet had pierced his clothes, it
had not even broken his skin. Said the sailor :
" This is the third time that that's 'appened to
me to-day. I'm beginning to think of my httle
grey 'ome in the West." So were others.

We had landed on a spit of land which in those
days we called Shrapnel Point, to the left of what
afterwards became Corps Headquarters, though
later the other spit on the right usurped that name.
I took cover under a bush with a New Zealand
officer. Major Browne. This officer had risen from
the ranks. He fought through the whole of the

THE FIEST LANDING 81

Gallipoli campaign, and in the end, to the sorrow
of all who knew him, was killed as a Brigadier
in France.

The shrapnel fire became too warm to be pleasant,
and I said : " Major, a soldier's first duty is to
save his fife for his country." He said : "I
quite agree, but I don't see how it's to be done."
We were driven from Shrapnel Point to the north,
round the ehff, but were almost immediately driven
back again by the furious fire that met us.

Diary. We were being shot at from three sides.
All that morning we kept moving. There were
lines of men clinging Uke cockroaches under the cliflfs
or moving sUently as the guns on the right and
left enfiladed us. The only thing to be done was
to dig in as soon as possible, but a good many
men were shot while they were doing this. General
Godley landed about twelve, and went up Monash
Gully with General Birdwood. We remained on
the beach. . . . We had no artillery to keep the
enemy's fire down.

We spent a chiUy night, sometimes lying down,
sometimes walking, as the rain began to fall after
dark, and we had not too much food. My servant.
Jack, who was a very old friend, and I made our-
selves as comfortable as we could.

There was a great deal of inevitable confusion.
We were very hard pressed ; as every draft landed
it was hurried off to that spot in the line where
reinforcements were most needed. This naturally
produced chaos amongst the units, and order was
not re-estabhshed for some time. It was a terrible
night for those in authority. I believe that, had
it been possible, we should have re-embarked that

7

82 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

night, but the sacrifices involved would have been
too great. Preparations for the expedition had
been totally inadequate. The chief R,A.M.C,
oflficer had told me the ridiculously small number of
casualties he had been ordered to make preparations
for, and asked my opinion, which I gave him with
some freedom. As it was, we had to put 600
men on the ship from which we had disembarked in
the morning, to go back to hospital in Egypt, a
four days' journey, under the charge of one officer,
who was a veterinary surgeon.

Diary. Monday, April 2,Qith. At 5 o'clock
yesterday our artillery began to land. It's a very
rough country ; the Mediterranean macchia every-
where, and steep, winding valleys. We slept on
a ledge a few feet above the beach. . , . Firing
went on aU night. In the morning it was very
cold, and we were all soaked. The Navy, it appeared,
had landed us in the wrong place. This made the
Army extremely angry, though as things turned out
it was the one bright spot. Had we landed anywhere
else, we should have been wiped out.

I believe the actual place decided on for our
landing was a mile farther south, which was an open
plain, and an ideal place for a hostile landing
from the Turkish point of view.

Next morning I walked with General Godley
and Tabu Rhodes, his A.D.C., up the height to
the plateau which was afterwards called Plugges
Plateau. The gulfies and ravines were very steep,
and covered with undergrowth. We found General
Walker, General Birdwood's Chief of the Staff,
on the ridge that bears his name. Bullets were
whining about, through the undergrowth, but were

THE FIRST LANDING 83

not doing much harm, though the shelling on the
beach was serious.

Diary. We believed that the Turks were using
16-inch shells from the Dardanelles, and we were
now able to reply. The noise was deafening,
and our firing knocked down our own dugouts.
The Generals all behaved as if the whole thing
was a tea-party. Their different Staffs looked
worried for their chiefs and themselves. Generals
Godley and Walker were the most reckless, but
General Birdwood also went out of his way to
take risks. The sun was very hot, and our clothes
dried while the shrapnel whistled over us into
the sea.

At noon we heard the rumour that the 2dth
were fighting their way up from Helles, and every-
body grew happy. We also heard that two
Brigadiers had been wounded and one killed.

The Australians had brought with them two
ideas, which were only eliminated by time, fighting,
and their own good sense. The " eight hours'
day " was almost a holy principle, and when they
had violated it by holding on for two or three days
heroically, they thought that they deserved a
" spell." Their second principle was not to leave
their pals. When a man was wounded his friends
would insist upoh bringing him down, instead of
leaving him to the stretcher-bearers. When they
had learned the practical side of war, both these
dogmas were jettisoned. In Egypt the Australians
had human weaknesses, and had shown them ;
in GaUipoU they were the best of companions.
Naturally, with the New Zealand Division, I saw
more of the New Zealanders, who had the virtues

84 MONS, ANZAC, AND KtIT

of the Australians and the British troops. They
had all the dash and elan of the Australians, and the
discipline of the Englishmen.

Diary. Tuesday, April 21th. Last night, or
rather this morning at about 1 o'clock, I was
called up by C. He said : " We are sending up
40,000 rounds of ammunition to Colonel Pope,"
Greek donkey-boys, with an Indian escort, were to
go up with this ammunition. I asked if any of&cer
was going, and was answered " No " ; that there
was no officer to go. I said that I would go if I
could get a guide, but that I did not talk Hindustani,
and that the whole thing was risky, as we were
just as Hkely without a guide to wander into the
Turks as to find our own people ; also that if we
were attacked we should be without means of com-
municating, and that the Greeks would certainly
bolt. At the Corps Headquarters I found an
absolutely gaga officer. He had an A.D.C. who
was on the spot, however, and produced a note
from Colonel Pope which stated that he had aU
the amnaunition he wanted. The officer, in spite
of this, told me to carry on. I said it was nonsense
without a guide, when Pope had his ammunition.
He then told me to take the mules to one place
and the ammunition to another. I said that I
had better take them both back to my own Head-
quarters, from which I had come. He then tried
to come with me, after saying that he would put
me under arrest, but fell over two tent-ropes and
was nearly kicked by a mule, and gave up in
mute despair.

I may add that this officer was sent away shortly
afterwards. The next night he was found with

THE FIEST LANDING 85

a revolver stalking one of the Staff officers, who
was sleeping with a night-cap that looked hke a
turban, to shelter his head from the dew. My
persecutor said that he thought he was a Turk.

Diary. Three of us slept crowded in one dugout
on Monday night. The cliff is becoming like a
rookery, with ill-made nests. George Lloyd and
Ian Smith have a charming view, only no room to
lie down in. Everybody's dugout is falling on his
neighbour's head. I went round the corner of the
chfE to find a clean place to wash in the sea, but
was sniped, and had to come back quick. The
GallipoU Division of Turks, 18,000 strong, is
supposed to be approaching, while we listened to
a great artillery duel not far off. An Armenian
who was captured yesterday reported the Gallipoli
Division advancing on us. On Tuesday night things
were better. I think most men were then of the
opinion that we ought to be able to hold on, but
we were clinging by our eyelids on to the ridge.
The confusion of units and the great losses in officers
increased the difficulty.

This was the third day of battle. My dugout
was twice struck. A tug was sunk just in front
of us. . . . The interpreters have all got three days'
beards which are turning white from worry. The
shells to-day did not do so much damage ; they
whirled over us in coveys, sometimes hitting the
beach and flying off singing, sometimes splashing
in the sea, but a lot of dead and wounded were
carried by.

About this time the spy mania started, which
is one of the inevitable concomitants of war. Spies
were supposed to be everywhere. In the popular

86 MQNS, ANZAC, AND KUT

belief, that ie "on the beach," there were enough
spies^ to have made an opera. The first convmcing
proof of treachery which we had was the story
of a Turkish girl who had painted her face green
in order to look like a tree, and had shot several
people at Helles from the boughs of an oak. Next
came the story of the daily pigeon post from Anzac
to the Turkish line ; but as a matter of fact, the
pigeons were about their own business of nesting.

We had with us, too, a remarkable body of men
who were more than suspect, and whose presence
fed the wildest rumours. These were called Zionists,
Zionites, and many other names. They were the
Jewish exiles from Syria, who looked after the
mules, and constituted the Mule Corps, under
Colonel Patterson, of lion-hunting fame. They
performed very fine service, and gave proof of the
greatest courage. On several occasions I saw the
mules blown to bits, and the men of the Mule Corps
perfectly calm, among their charges. One night
it did seem to me that at last we had got the genuine
article. A panting Australian came to say that
they had captured a German disguised as a member
of the Mule Corps, but that he had unfortunately
killed one man before being taken. When I ex-
amined this individual he gave his name as Fritz
Sehmann, and the language in which we conversed
most easily was German. He was able to justify
himself in his explanation, which turned out to be
true. He had been walking along the cliff at night
with his mule, when the mule had been shot and
had fallen over the chff with Fritz Sehmann.
Together they had fallen upon an unfortunate
soldier, who had been killed by the same burst.

It was a work of some difficulty to explain to the

KABA TEPE 87

Colonial troops that many of the priBoners that wo
took — as, for instance, Greeks and Armenians — ^were
conscripts who hated their masters. On one occa-
sion, speaking of a prisoner, I said to a soldier :
" This man says he is a Greek, and that he hates the
Turks." " That's a Ukely story, that is," said the
soldier; "better put a bayonet in the brute."

The trouble that we had with the native inter-
preters is even now a painful memory. If they were
arrested once a day, they were arrested ten times.
Those who had anything to do with them, if they
were not suspected of being themselves infected
by treachery, were believed to be in some way
unpatriotic. It was almost as difficult to persuade
the ofl&cers as the men that the fact that a man
knew Turkish did not make him a Turk. There
was one moment when the interpreters were flying
over the hills like hares.

Diary. Wednesday, April 2%ih. I got up at
4 a.m. this morning, after a fine, quiet night, and
examined a Greek deserter from the Turkish Army.
He said many would desert if they did not fear
for their lives. The New Zealanders spare their
prisoners.

Last night, while he was talking to me, Colonel C.
was hit by a bit of shell on his hat. He stood quite
stUl while a man might count three, wondering
if he was hurt. He then stooped down and picked
it up. At 8 p.m last night there was furious shelling
in the gully. Many men and mules hit. General
Godley was in the Signalling Office, on the telephone,
fairly under cover. I was outside with Pinwell,
and got grazed, just avoiding the last burst. Their
range is better. Before this they have been bursting

88 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

the shrapnel too high.. It was after 4 p.m. their
range improved so much. My dugout was shot
through five minutes before I went there. So was
Shaw's. . . .

Colonel Chaytor was knocked down by shrapnel,
but not hurt. The same happened to Colonel
Manders. We heard that the Indian troops were
to come to-night. Twenty-three out of twenty-
seven Auckland officers kUled and wounded.

11 a.m. All firing except from HeUes has ceased.
Things look better. The most the men can do
is to hang on. General Godley has been very
fine. The men know it.

4.30 p.m. Turks suddenly reported to have
mounted huge howitzer on our left flank, two or
three miles away. We rushed aU the ammunition off
the beach, men working like ants, complete silence
and furious work. We were absolutely enfiladed,
and they could have pounded us, mules and
machinery, to pulp, or driven us into the gully
and up the hill, cutting us off from our water and
at the same time attacking us with shrapnel. The
ships came up and fired on the new gun, and proved
either that it was a dummy or had moved, or had
been knocked out. It was a cold, wet night.

The material which General Birdwood and General
Godley had to work upon was very fine. The
Australians and the New Zealanders were bom
fighters and natural soldiers, and learnt quickly on
Active Service what it would have taken months
of training to have taught them. But like many
another side-show, Anzac was casual in many ways,
as the following excerpt from this diary will
show : —

KABA TEPS 89

Diary, Thursday, April 2^ih. Kaba Tepe. I
was woken at 2.30 a.m., when the New Zealanders
stood to arms. It was wet and cold, and a wind
blew which felt as if it came through snowy gorges.
The alarm had been given, and the Turks were
supposed to be about to rush the beach from
the left flank in force. Colonel Chaytor was sent
to hold the point. He told me to collect stragglers
and form them up. It was very dark, and the
stragglers were very straggly. I found an Australian,
Quinn, and told him to fetch his men along to the
gun emplacement, beyond the graves, on the point
where Chaytor was. Every one lost every one.

I found Colonel Chaytor with an Australian
officer. He said to him : "Go out along the flank
and find out where the Canterbury Battalion is,
and how strong. On the extreme left there is a
field ambulance. They must be told to lie down,
so that the Turks will not shoot them." I said
I would look after them. We started. I heard
the Austrahan, after we had gone some hundreds
of yards, ordering the Canterburys in support to
retire. I said : " But are your orders to that
effect ? A support is there to support. The Canter-
burys wiU be routed or destroyed if you take this
support away." He said : " Well, that's a bright
idea." He went back, and I heard him say, in the
darkness : " This officer thinks you had better
stay where you are." I don't know if he was a
Colonel, or what he was, and he did not know
what I was.

I found the field ambulance, a long way off,
and went on to the outposts. The field ambulance
were touchingly grateful for nothing, and I had
some tea and yarned with them till morning, walking

90 MONS, AISTZAC, AND KUT

back after dawn along the beach by the graves.
No one fired at me.

When I got back I heard the news of Doughty's '
death, which grieved me a great deal. . . . He
seems to have saved the situation. The description
of Helles is ghastly, of the men looking down into
the red sea, and the dying drowned in a foot of
water. That is what might have, and really ought
to have happened to us.

One hears the praise of politicians in all men's
mouths. ...

A beautiful night, last night, and a fair amount
of shrapnel. Every evening now they send over
a limited number of howitzers from the great guns
in the Dardanelles, aimed at our ships. That
happens also in the early morning, as this morning.
To-night an aeroplane is to locate these guns, and
when they let fly to-morrow we are to give them
an immense broadside from all our ships.

At this time the weather had improved, but we
were living in a good deal of discomfort. We
were not yet properly supplied with stores, the
water was brackish, occasionally one had to shave
in salt water, and all one's ablutions had to be done
on the beach, with the permission of the Turkish
artillery.

The beach produced a profound impression on
almost all of us, and has in some cases made the
seaside distasteful for the rest of our lives. It
was, when we first landed, I suppose, about
30 yards broad, and covered with shingle. Upon
this narrow strip depended all our communications
landing and putting off, food and water, all came
• Colonel Doughty Wylie, V.C.

KABA TEPE 91

and went upon the beach — and the Turkish guns
had got the exact range* Later, shelters were
put up, but life was still precarious, and the openness
of the beach gave men a "greater feeling of insecurity
than they had in the trenches.

Diary. Our hair and eyes and mouths are full
of dust and sand, and our nostrils of the smell of
dead mules.

There were also colonies of ants that kept in
close touch ,with us, and our cigarettes gave out.
Besides these trials, we had no news of the war
or of the outer world.

Diary. Tahu and I repacked the provisions
this morning. While we did so one man was shot
on the right and another on the left. We have been
expecting howitzers all the time, and speculating
as to whether there would be any panic if they
really get on to us. The Turks have got their
indirect, or rather enfilading, fire on us, and hit
our mules. One just hit a few yards away. . . .
Imbros and Samothrace are clear and delicate
between the blue sea and the hot sky. The riband
of beach is crowded with transport, and Jews,
Greeks, Armenians, New Zealanders, Australians,
scallyw^ag officers, and officers that still manage to
keep a shadow of dandyism between their dis-
reputable selves and immaculate past. And there's
the perpetual ripple of the waves that is sometimes
loud enough to be mistaken for the swish of shrapnel,
which is also perpetual, splashing in the sea or
rattling on the beach. There is very little noise
on the beach in the way of talk and laughter. The
men never expected to be up against this. When

92 MONS, ANZAO, AND KUT

we left Lemnos we saw one boat with an arrow
and in front of it " To Constantinople and the
Habbm." Precious few of those poor fellows will
ever see Constantinople, let alone the Harem.

May \st. A beautiful dawn, but defiled by a
real hymn of hate from the Turks. Last night
the Torgut Reiss sent us some shells. This morn-
ing it was supposed to be the Goehen that was
firing, I woke to hear the howitzers that everybody
had been talking of here droning over us, and watched
them lifting great columns of water where they hit
the sea. Then there came the sigh and the snarl
of shrapnel, but that to the other is like the rustle
of a lady's fan to the rumble of a brewer's dray.
This hymn of hate went on for an unusually long
time this morning from the big stuff. A lot of
men were hit all round, and it. has been difficult
to wash in the sea. All the loading, unloading,
etc., is done at night. The picket-boats are fairly
well protected. The middies are the most splendid
boys. We are all very cramped and the mules add
to the congestion. We shall have a plague of
flies before we are done, if we don't have a worse
plague than that. The New Zealanders are aU
right. . . .

Colonel White, Rickes and Murphy, all hit at
breakfast this morning, but not hurt. One of the
Greek donkey-boys says he is a barber. This
Would be a great advantage if he wasn't so nervous
and did not start so much whenever there is a burst.

There is a fleet of boats in front of us, and even
more at Helles ; the Turks must feel uncomfortable,
but another landing, between us, would be pretty
risky. They are fighting splendidly. Opinions are
divided as to what would happen if we fought our

KABA TEP^ 93

way to Maidos. Many think we could be shelled
out again by the Goeben. This expedition needed
at least three times the number of men. The
Indians have not come, and the Territorials cannot
come for a long time.

General Godley wants to change Headquarters
for us. Colonel Artillery Johnston's battery is on
our right, facing the Turks, and only a few yards
away. The Turks spend a lot of time shooting
at it, missing it, and hitting us. Another man
killed just now. Shrapnel, heaps of it, is coming
both ways on us. Nobody speaks on the beach.
We have two tables on the top of the dugout.
One is safe, and the other can be hit. The punctual
people get the safe table.

B. has lunched. He says that Rupert Brooke died
at Lemnos. I am very sorry ; he was a good fellow,
and a poet with a great future. B. was blown
up by a shell yesterday. He has to go back to-night.
While we lunched a man had his head blown off
20 yards away. . . .

Orders have come that we are to entrench im-
pregnably. We are practically besieged, for we
can't re-embark without sacrificing our rear-guard,
and if the howitzers come up we shall be cut off
from the beach and our water. A lot more men
have been killed on the beach. . . .

Sunday, May 2nd. 6 a.m. Shrapnel all round
as I washed. Beach opinion is if this siege lasts
they must be able to get up their heavy guns. The
Indians have gone to Helles, and the Naval Division
is being taken away from us. New Turkish Divisions
are coming against us. There are no chaplains
here for burial or for anything else.

Waite took a dozen prisoners this morning —

94 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

gendarmes, nice fellows. They hadn't much to
tell us. One of them complained that he had been
shot through a mistake after he had surrendered.
There ought to be an interpreter on these occa-
sions. . . .

It is a fiery hot day, without a ripple on the clear
sea, and all still but for the thunder coming from
Helles. I bathed and got cleani The beach looks
like a mule fair of mutes, for it is very silent. We
are to attack to-night at seven. We have now been
here a week, and advanced a hundred yards farther
than the first rush carried us. There is a great
bombardment going on, a roaring ring of fire,
and the Turks are being shelled and shelled.

At night the battleships throw out two lines of
searchlights, and behind them there gleam the
fires of Samothrace and Imbros. Up and down
the cliffs here, outside the dugouts, small fires
bum. The rifle fire comes over the hill, echoing
in the valleys and back from the ships. Sometimes
it is difficult to tell whether it is the sound of ripples
on the beach or firing.

Monday^ May ^rd. I was called up at 3 a.m.
to examine three prisoners. Our attack has failed,
and we have many casualties, probably not less
than 1,000. The wounded have been crying on
the beach horribly. A wounded Arab reported
that our naval gun fire did much damage.

The complaint is old and bitter now. We insist
that the Turks are Hottentots. We give them
notice before we attack them. We tell them what
we are going to do with their Capital. We attack
them with an inadequate force of irregular troops,
without adequate ammunition (we had one gun
in our landing) in the most impregnable part of

KABA TEPE 95

their Empire. We ask for trouble all over the East
by risking disaster here.

The Goeben is shelling the fleet, and (11.30) has
just struck a transport. The sea is gay, and a
fresh wind is blowing, and the beach is crowded,
but there is not a voice upon it, except for an
occasional order. . . .

The Turks are now expected to attack us. We
suppose people realize what is happening here
in London, though it isn't easy to see how troops
and reinforcements can be sent us in time — that is,
before the Turks have turned all this into a fortifi-
cation. A good many men hit on the beach to-day.
The mules cry like lost souls.

Tuesday, May 4:th. The sea like a looking-glass,
not a cloud in the sky, and Samothrace looking
very clear and close. The moon is like a faint
shadow of light in the clear sky over the smoke
of the guns. Heavy fighting between us and
Helles. A landing is being attempted. Pessimists
say it is our men being taken off because their
position is impossible. The boats coming back
seem full of wounded. It may have been an attempt
at a landing and entrenching, or simply a repetition
of what we did the other day at Falcon Hill or
Nebronesi, or whatever the place is.

The attack has failed this morning. Perfect
peace here, except for rifles crackling on the hill.
Ian Smith and I wandered off up a valley through
smilax, thyme, heath and myrtle, to a high ridge.
We went through the Indians and found a couple of
very jolly officers, one of them since killed. There
are a good many bodies unburied. Not many
men hit. We helped to carry one wounded man
back. The stretcher-bearers are splendid fellows.

96 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

good to friend and enemy. At one place we saw a
beastly muddy little pond with a man standing
in it in trousers, shovelling out mud. But the water
in a tin was clear and cool and very good. . . .

General Godley and Tahu Rhodes got up to the
Turkish trenches, quite close to them. The Turks
attacked, threw hand-grenades, and our supports
broke. The General rallied the men, but a good
many were killed, amongst them the General's
orderly, a gentleman ranker and a first-rate fellow,

Wednesday, May 5th. Kaba Tepe. The other
day, when our attack below failed, the Turks allowed
us to bring ofE our wounded. This was after that
unfortunate landing.

Went on board the Lutzow to-day, and got some
of my things off. Coming back the tow rope parted,
and we thought that we should!, drift into captivity.
It was rough and unpleasant.

Thursday, May 6th. Very cold night. The dead
are unburied and the wounded crying for water
between the trenches. Talked to General Birdwood
about the possibility of an armistice for burying
the dead and bringing in the wounded. He thinks
that the Germans would not allow the Turks to
accept.

Colonel Esson ' landed this morning. He brought
the rumour that 8,000 Turks had been killed lower
down on the Peninsula. We attacked Achi Baba
at 10 a.m. There was an intermittent fire all
night.

This morning I went up to the trenches with
General Godley by Walker's Ridge. The view was
magnificent. The plain was covered with friendly
olives. . . . General Birdwood and General Mercer,

' Colonel Esson was Q.M.G. of the New Zealand Division.

KABA TEPll 97

commanding the Naval Brigade were also there.
The trenches have become a perfect maze. As
we went along the snipers followed us, seeing Onslow's
helmet above the parapet, and stinging us with
dirt. Many dead. I saw no wounded between
the lines. On the beach the shrapnel has opened
from a new direction. The Turks were supposed
to be making light railways to bring up their howitzers
and then rub us off this part of the Periinsula. This
la/St shell that has just struck the beach has
kUled and wounded several men and a good many
mules. ... '

Friday, May Ith. A bitter night and morning. . . .
This morning a sheU burst overhead, when I heard
maniac peals of laughter and found the cook flying
up, hit in the boot and his kitchen upset ; he was
laughing like a madman. It's a nuisance one has
to sit in the shade in our dining place and not in
the sun. They have got our exact range, and are
pounding in one shell after another, A shell has
just burst over our heads, and hit a lighter and
set her on fire.

The mules, most admirable animals, had now
begun to give a good deal of trouble, alive and dead.
There were hundreds of them on the beach and
in the guUies. Alive, they bit precisely and kicked
accurately ; dead, they were towed out to sea, but
returned to us faithfully on the beach, making bathing
unpleasant and cleanliness difficult. The dead mule
was not only offensive to the Army ; he became
a source of supreme irritation to the Navy, as he
floated on his back, with his legs sticking stiffly
up in the air. These legs were constantly mis-
taken for periscopes of submarines, causing excite-

8

98 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

ment, exhaustive naval manoeuvres and sometimes
recriminations.

My special duties now began to take an unusual
form. Every one was naturally anxious for Turkish
troops to surrender, in order to get information,
and also that we might have fewer men to fight.
Those Turks who had been captured had said
that the general belief was that we took no prisoners,
but killed all who fell into our hands, ruthlessly.
I said that I believed that this impression, which
did us much harm, could be corrected. The
problem was how to disabuse the Turks of this
belief. I was ordered to make speeches to them
from those of our trenches which were closest to
theirs, to explain to them that they would be well
treated and that our quarrel lay with the Germans,
and not with them.

Diary. Friday, May 1th. At 1.30 I went up
Monash Valley, which the men now call the " Valley
of Death," passing a stream of haggard men, wounded
and unwounded, coming down in the brilhant
sunUght. I saw Colonel Monash • at his head-
quarters, and General Godley with him, and received
instructions. The shelling overhead was terrific,
but did no damage, as the shells threw forward,
but the smoke made a shadow between us and
the sun. It was hke the continuous crashing of
a train going over the sleepers of a railway bridge.

Monash, whom I had last seen at the review in

the desert, said : " We laugh at this shrapnel."

He tried to speak on the telephone to say I was

coming, but it was difficult, and the noise made

it impossible. Finally I went up the slope to

' Now Lieiit.-General Sir John Monash, commanding the
Australian Forces.

KABA TEPE 99

Quinn's Post, with an escort, running and taking
cover, and panting up the very steep hill. It felt
as if bullets rained, but the fact is that they came
from three sides and have each got about five
echoes. There's a decollete place in the hill that
they pass over. I got into the trench, and found
Quinn, tall and openfaced, swearing like a trooper,
much respected by his men. The trenches in
Quinn's Post were narrow and low, full of exhausted
men sleeping. I crawled over them and through
tiny holes. There was the smell of death every-
where. I spoke in three places.

In conversations with the Turks across the trenches
I generally said the same thing : that we took
prisoners and treated them well; that the essential
quarrel was between us and the Germans and not
between England and the Turks; that the Turks
had been our friends in the Crimea ; and I ended
by quoting the Turkish proverb " Eski dost dushman
olmaz " (An old friend cannot be an enemy).
These speeches probably caused more excitement
amongst our men than in the ranks of the Turks,
though the Constantinople Press declared that a
low attempt to copy the muezzin's call to prayer
had been made from our lines. There were many
pictures drawn of the speech-maker and the shower
of hand-grenades that answered his kindly words.
It must be admitted that there was some reason for
these caricatures. Upon this first occasion nothing
very much happened — ^to me, at any rate. Our lines
were very close to the Turkish lines, and I was
able to speak clearly with and without a megaphone,
and the Turks were good enough to show some
interest, and in that neighbourhood to keep quiet

100 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

for a time. I got through my business quickly,
and went back to the beach. It was then that the
consequences of these blandishments developed,
for the places from which I had spoken were made
the object of a very heavy strafe, of which I had
been the innocent cause, and for which others
suffered. When I returned two days later to make
another effort at exhortation, I heard a groan
go up from the trench. " Oh, Lord, here he comes
again. Now for the bally bombs." On the first
occasion when not much had happened it had been :
" Law, I'd Uke to be able to do that meself."

Diary. Friday, May 1th. On getting back here
we had a very heavy fire, which broke up our dinner
party, wounded Jack Anderson, stung Jack (my
servant), hit me. Jack is sick, . . . Here are three
unpleasant possibihties .•' —

1. Any strong attack on the height. The Navy
could not help then. We should be too mixed
in the fighting.

2. The expected blessed big guns to lollop over
howitzers.

3. Disease. The Turks have dysentery already.
There is an uncanny whistling overhead. It

must come from the bullets and machine-guns
or Maxims a long way ofif. It sounds eldritch.
T. very sick after seeing some wounded on the beach,
and yet his nerves are very good. Eastwood told
me that he was sure to get through. I told him not
to say such things. He had three bullets through
his tunic the other day. I went on the Lutzow
to get the rest of my stuff off, and found Colonel
Ryan (" Turkish Charlie ") ' full of awful descriptions
• Because he had been through the siege of Plevna and was
eovered with Turkish decorations.

ANZAC 101

of operations. Many wounded on the boat, all very
quiet. . . • Had a drink with a sailor, the gloomiest
man that ever I met. He comes from Southampton,
and thinks we cannot possibly win the war. It's
become very cold.

Most of the diary of May 9th is too indiscreet
for publication, but here are some incidents of the
day:—

Worsley " says it's very hard to get work done
on the beach ; in fact its almost impossible. It
was said th^t the gun which had been enfilading
us was knocked out, but it is enfilading us now,
and it looks as if we shall have a pretty heavy bill
to pay to-day. The beach is holding its breath,
and between the sound of the shrapnel and the
hiss there is only the noise of the waves and a few
low voices. . . . Harrison, who was sUghtly wounded
a few days ago, was yesterday resting in his dugout
when he was blown out of it by a shell To day
he was sent to the Lutzow, and we watched him
being shelled the whole way, his boat wrigghng.
It seems as if the shells know and love him. I
am glad he won't be dining with us any more ;
a magnet like that is a bore, though he is a very
good fellow. The land between us and the 29th
is reported to be full of barbed wire entanglements.

Monday^ May \Oth. Raining and cold. Jack
better.

Colonel Braithwaite woke me last night with
the news of the sinking of the Lusitania. Last
night we took three trenches, but lost them again
this morning. S. B. came last night ; I was glad
to see him.

' Supply officer of the New Zealand Division.

102 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

S. B. had been a great friend of mine in Egypt
and brought me and others letters, of which we
were badly in need, and stores, which were very
welcome. We met upon the beach, and decided
to celebrate the occasion in the Intelhgence dugout,
for my friend had actually got some soda and a
bottle of whisky, two very rare luxuries on the
beach.

Diary. We went into the Intelligence dugout
and sat there. Then a shell hit the top of the
dugout. The next one buzzed a lot of bullets
in through the door. The third ricochetted all
over the place and one bullet grazed my head.
I then said : " We'd better put up a blanket
to save us from the ricochets." At the same
time J. was shot next door and Onslow's war
diary was destroyed. A pot of jam was shot
in General Cunhffe Owen's hand, which made him
very angry. V., the beachmaster, dashed into our
Intelhgence dugout gasping while we held blankets
in front of him. Two days ago a man was killed
in his dugout next door, and another man again
yesterday. Now two fuses had come straight
through his roof and spun like a whipping-top on
the floor, dancing a sort of sarabande before the
hypnotized eyes of the sailors. . . .

Also S. B.'s whisky was destroyed in the luncheon
basket. He broke into furious swearing in Arabic.

Wednesday, May \2th. Rain, mud, grease, temper
all night, but we shall long for this coolness when
it really gets hot. No bombardment this morning,
but the Greek cook, Christopher of the Black Lamp,
came and gave two hours' notice, with the rain and
tears running down his face. I am not surprised

ANZAC 103

at his giving notice, but why he should be meticulous
about the time I can't think. Conversation about
the shelUng is getting very boring.

Had a picturesque walk through the dark last
night, past Greeks, Indians, Australians, across a
rain-swept, wind-swept, bullet-swept hillside. Many
of the Colonels here are business men, who never
in their wildest dreams contemplated being in
such a position, and they have risen to the occasion
finely. The Generals have at last been prevailed
upon not to walk about the beach in the day-
time. . . . Two German and one Austrian submarine
expected here. The transports have been ordered to
Mudros.

Thursday, May \Zih. Very calm morning, the
echoes of rifle fire on the sea. I went with C. to
take General Russell ^ up from Reserve GuUy to
Walker's Ridge. It was a beautiful morning, with
the sky flaming softly, not a cloud anywhere, and
the sea perfectly still. The scrub was full of wild
flowers ; not even the dead mules could spoil it.
Guns thundered far off. . . . After breakfast
examined an intelligent Greek prisoner, Nikolas,
the miller from Ali Keni. Then I was telephoned
for by Colonel Monash in great haste, and went oflE
up his valley with a megaphone as quickly as possible.
In the valley the men were in a state of nerves
along the road because of the snipers. The Turks
had put up a white flag above their trenches opposite
Quinn's Post. I think this was an artillery flag
and that they hoped to avoid the fire of the fleet
by this means. . . . The people at Helles aren't
making headway, and it seems unlikely, except
at tremendous cost, and probably not then, that

' Now Lieut.-General Sir A. H. Russell, K.C.M.G., K.C.B.

104 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

they will. We are pretty well hung up except
on our left ; why not try there ? The Turks are
not yet entrenched or dug in there as in. other
places. ... I had to bully Yanni of Ayo Strati
till he sobbed on the chff. I then threatened to
dismiss him, after which he grew cheerful, for it
was what he wanted. . , .

The Turks have again got white flags out. Have
been ordered to go up at dawn.

■Friday, May \Uh. 4 a.m. Walked up the
valley. The crickets were singing in the bushes
at the opening of the vaUey and the place was cool
with the faint light of coming dawn. Then a line
of stretcher-bearers with the wounded, some quiet,
some groaning. Then came the dawn and the
smeU of death that infects one's haiids and clothes
and haunts one.

They weren't over-pleased to see me at first,
as after my speech the other day they had had an
awful time from hand-grenades, and their faces
fell when I appeared. I spoke from the same
place. Then I went to another, and lastly to a
trench that communicated with the Turkish trench.
The Greek who had surrendered last night came down
this trench and the Turks were said to be five to
ten yards off. It was partly roofed, and there were
some sandbags, between two and three feet high,
that separated us from them. Leading into this
was a big circular dugout, open to heaven. I
got the men cleared out of this before speaking.
In the small trench there were two men facing the
Turks and lying on the ground with revolvers
pointed at the Turks. I moved one man back
out of the way and lay on the other — ^there wasn't
anything else to be done — -and spoke for five minutes

ANZAC 105

with some intervals. Once a couple of hand-
grenades feU outside and the ground quivered, but
that was all. I then got the guard changed. . . .

The loss of the Goliath is confirmed and the
fleet has gone, leaving a considerable blank on
the horizon and a depression on the sunlit beach.
Four interpreters were arrested to-day and handed
over to me.

I put them on to dig me a new dugout, round
which a colony of interpreters is growing : Kyriakidis,
who is a fine man and a gentleman ; Ashjian, a young
Armenian boy, aristocratic-looking, but very soft,
whom I want to send away as soon as possible;
and others. My dugout is in the middle of wild
flowers, with the sea splashing round. Since the
ships have all gone we are, as a consequence, short
of water. . . . The Turks have been shelling our
barges hard for an hour. We are to make an
attack to-night and destroy their trenches.

Saturday, May 15th. The attack has failed.
There are many of our wounded outside our lines.
Have been told to go out with a white flag. Was
sent for by Skeen ^ to see General Birdwood in half
an hour. WhUe Colonel Skeen and I were talking
a shell hit one man in the lungs and knocked Colonel
Knox on the back without hurting him. General
Birdwood was hit yesterday in the head, but won't
lie up. General Trottman the day before. While
we talked water arrived. A message came from
Colonel Chauvel to say there were only two wounded
lying out. ... In a few minutes a telephone message
arrived from the doctor in the trenches that the
two wounded had died. ... I came back to Head-
quarters, and heard General Bridges ^ asking the
I Now Chief of Staff in India. * Commanding Australian Div.

106 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

General if he might go up Monash Valley. In
a few minutes we heard that he was shot in the
thigh. The snipers are getting many of our men.
If the Germans were running this show they would
have had 200,000 men for it.

Last night Kyriakidis heard a nightingale. I
notice that the cuckoo has changed his note, worried
by the shrapnel. I don't blame the bird. My
new dugout is built. It has a corridor and a patio,
and is sort of Louis Quinze. The food is good,
but we are always hungry.

Went out with Colonel N. He is a very great
man for his luxuries, and looks on cover as the
first of these. He is very funny about shelling,
and is huffy, like a man who has received an insult,
if he gets hit by a spent bullet or covered with earth.
They have got the range of our new Headquarters
beautifully — ^two shells before lunch, one on either
side of the kitchen range. The men and the mess
table covered with dust and stones. The fact
is our ships have gone ; they can now do pretty
much as they like.

Most people here agree that the position is hope-
less, unless we drive the Turks back on our left
and get reinforcements from Helles, where they
could quite well spare them,

Sunday, May \Qth. A day fit for Trojan heroes
to fight on. As a matter of fact, there is a good
deal of Trojan friction. Went into the Intelligence
dugout, as five men were hit below it. They have
just hit another interpreter, and are pounding
away at us again. I was warned to go out with
a flag of truce and a bugler this afternoon.

Monday, May llth. I walked out to the left
with S. B., and bathed in a warm, quiet sea. Many

ANZAC 107

men bathing too, and occasionally shrapnel also.
There was a scent of thyme, and also the other
smell from the graves on the beach, which are
very shallow. I got a touch of the sun, and had
to lie down. When I got back I heard that Villiers
Stuart had been killed this morning, instantaneously.
He was a very good fellow, and very good to me.

Tuesday, May \%th. Last night Villiers Stuart
was buried. The funeral was to have been at
sunset, but at that time we were savagely shelled
and had to wait. We formed up in as decent a
kit as we cotlld muster, and after the sun had set in
a storm of red, while the young moon was rising,
the procession started. We stumbled over boulders,
and met stretcher-bearers with dead and wounded,
we passed Indians driving mules, and shadowy
Australians standing at attention, till we came to
the graves by the sea. The prayers were very short
and good, interrupted by the boom of our guns
and the whining of Turkish bullets overhead. His
salute was fired above his head from both the
trenches. . . .

We shelled the village of Anafarta yesterday,
which I don't much care about. A good many
here want to destroy the minaret of the mosque.
I can see no difference in principle between this
and the destruction of Rheims Cathedral. Kyria-
kidis told me. a Greek cure for sunstroke. You
fill the ears of the afflicted one with salt water;
it makes a noise Hke thunder in his head, but the
sunstroke passes. Christo thereupon got me salt
water in a jug without telling me, and several
thirsty people tried to drink it. . . .

A German submarine seen here. ... A day
of almost perfect peace ; rifle fire ceased sometimes

108 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

for several minutes together, but 8-inch shells
were fired into the trenches, . . . Men are singing
on the beach for the first time, and there is something
cheerful in the air. The enfilading gun has been,
as usual, reported to be knocked out, but gunners
are great optimists. No news from Helles. . . .
Turkish reinforcements just coming up. Attack
expected at 3 a.m. We stand to arms here..

Wednesday, May l^th. Work under heavy shell
fire. This grew worse about 6.30. Several heavy
shells hit within a few yards of this dugout and the
neighbouring ones, but did not burst. A Httle
farther off they did explode, or striking the sea,
raised tall columns and high fountains of white
water. Colonel Chaytor badly wounded in the
shoulder. A great loss to us. He talked very
cheerfully. I have got leave to send away Ashjian.
. . . This, after aU, is a quarrel for those directly
concerned. The Germans have brought up about
twelve more field-guns and four or five Jack John-
sons, and the shelling is very heavy. Saw a horrid
sight : a barge fuU of wounded was being towed
out to the hospital ship. Two great Jack Johnsons
came, one just in front of them; then when they
turned with a wriggle, one just behind them, sending
up towers of water, and leaving two great white
roses in the sea that turned muddy as the stuflE
from the bottom rose. They had shells round
them again, and a miraculous escape. It's cruel
hard on the nerves of wounded men, but of course
that was bad luck, not wicked intentions, because
the enemy couldn't see them.

If the Turks had attacked us fiercely on the top
and shelled us as badly down here earlier, they
might have had us out. Now we ought to be all

ANZAC 109

right, and they can hardly go on using ammunition
like this. Their losses are said to be very great.
New Turkish reinforcements said to be at Helles.
They have done what we ought to have done.
Now they are throwing 11-inch at us. It's too bad.
... I saw Colonel Skeen. He said to me : " You
had better be ready to go out this afternoon. We
have just shot a Turk with a white flag. That will
give us an excuse for apologizing " ; quite so : it will
also give the Turk an excuse for retahating. A
Turkish officer just brought in says that the real
attack is to be this afternoon, now at 1.30. I
spent an hour in the hospital, interpreting for
the Turkish wounded. The Austrahans are very
good to them. On returning I found the General's
dugout hit hard. Nothing to be done but to dig
deeper in.

From the third week in May to the third week
in June was the kernel of our time at Anzac. We
had grown accustomed to think of the place as
home, and of the conditions of our life as natural
and permanent. The monotony of the details of
shelling and the worry of the flies are of interest
only to those who endured them, and have been
eliminated, here and there, from this diary.

During this month we were not greatly troubled.
The men continued to make the trenches impreg-
nable, and were contented. It was in some ways
a curiously happy time.

The New Zealanders and the Australians were
generally clothed by the sunlight, which fitted
them, better than any tailor, with a red-brown
skin, and only on ceremonial occasions did they
wear their belts and accoutrements.

Our sport was bathing, and the Brotherhood of

no MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

the Bath was rudely democratic. There was at
Anzac a singularly benevolent ofi&cer, but fox all
his geniality a strong disciplinarian, devoted to
military observances. He was kind to all the
world, not forgetting himself, and he had developed
a kindly figure. No insect could resist his contours.
Fleas and bugs made passionate love to him, in-
layiag his white skin with a wonderful red mosaic.
One day he undressed and, leaving nothing of his
dignity with his uniform, he mingled superbly with
the crowd of bathers. Instantly he received a
hearty blow upon his tender, red and white shoulder
and a cordial greeting from some democrat of
Sydney or of Wellington : " Old man, you've been
amongst the biscuits ! " He drew himself up to
rebuke this presumption, then dived for the sea,
for, as he said, " What's the good of telling one
naked man to salute another naked man, especially
when neither have got their caps ? "

This month was marked by a feature that is
rare in modern warfare. We had an armistice
for the burial of the dead, which is described in
the diary.

On the Peninsula we were extremely anxious
for an armistice for many reasons. We wished,
on all occasions, to be able to get our wounded in
after a fight, and we believed, or at least the
writer was confident, that an arrangement could be
come to. We were also very anxious to bury the
dead. Rightly or wrongly, we thought that G.H.Q.,
living on its perfumed island, did not consider how
great was the abomination of life upon the cramped
and stinking battlefield that was our encampment,
though this was not a charge that any man would
have dreamed of bringing against Sir Ian Hamilton.

ANZAC 111

Diary. Wednesday, May 19, 1915. Kaha TepL
General Birdwood told me to go to Imbros to talk
to Sir Ian Hamilton about an armistice, if General
Godley would give me leave.

Thursday, May 20, 1915. Kaha TepL Have
been waiting for four hours in Colonel Knox's
boat, which was supposed to go to Imbros. Turkish
guns very quiet. . . . Hear that Ock Asquith and
Wedgwood are wounded. A liaison officer down
south says : " When the Senegalese fly, and the
French troops stream forward twenty yards and
then stream back twenty-five yards, we know
that we are making excellent progress." There is
a CoaUtion Government at home. We think that
we are the reason of that ; we think the Govern-
ment cannot face the blunder of the Dardanelles
without asking for support from the Conservatives.

6 p.m. " Arcadian." Found George Lloyd. Have
been talking to Sir Ian Hamilton with regard
to the armistice. . . . Clive Bigham ' was there.
He lent me some Shakespeares.

Friday, May 21, 1915. Kaba TepL Saw Sir
Ian Hamilton again this morning. The Turks
are said to have put up a white flag and to have
massed behind it in their trenches, intending to
rush us. Left with four " Arcadians."

There was a parley yesterday while I was away.
The Turks ^ad put up some white flags, but it was
not a case of bad faith as the "Arcadians" believed.
We are said to have shot one Red Crescent man by
mistake. General Walker went out to talk to the
Turks, just like that. Both sides had, apparently,
been frightened. I walked back to Reserve Gully
with the General, to see the new brigade. The

» Now Lieut.-Colonel Bigham, C.M.G., Grenadier Guards.

112 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

evening sun was shining on the myrtles in all the
gullies, and the new brigade was singing and
whistling up and down the hills, while fir€S craekled
everywhere.

Saturday, May 22, 1915. Kaha Tepe. S. B. was
sent out yesterday to talk to the Turks, but he
did not take a white flag with him, and was sniped
and bruised. . . . This morning, suddenly, I was
sent for. S. B. and I hurried along the beach
and crossed the barbed wire entanglements. We
went along by the sea, through heavy showers of
rain, and at last met a fierce Arab officer and a
wandery-looking Turkish lieutenant. We sat and
smoked in fields splendid with poppies, the sea
glittering by us.

Then Kemal Bey arrived, and went into Anzac
with S. B., while I went o£E as hostage.

S. B. and Kemal Bey, as they went, provided
the Australian escort with much innocent laughter.
Our barbed wire down to the sea consisted only
of a few light strands, over which the Turk was
helped by having his legs raised high for him.
S. B., however, wished him, as he was blindfolded,
to believe that this defence went on for at least
twenty yards. So the Turk was made to do an
enormously high, stiflE goose-step over the empty
air for that space, as absurd a spectacle to our
men as I was to be, later, to the Turks. The
Australians were almost sick from internal laughter.

Diary. Kemal Bey asked for a hostage, and I
went out. They bandaged my eyes, and I mounted
a horse and rode ofiE with Sahib Bey. We went
along by the sea for some time, for I could hear

THE TUEKISH CAMP 113

the waves. Then we went round and round — ^to
puzzle me, I suppose — and ended up in a tent in
a grove of olives, where they took the handkerchief
oflE, and Sahib Bey said : " This is the beginning
of a life-long friendship."

At one moment, as I was riding along, the soldier
who was supposed to be leading my horse had
apparently let go and had fallen behind to Ught
a cigarette or pick flowers. I heard Sahib Bey
call out : " You old fool ! Can't you see he's
riding straight over the clifif ? " I protested loudly
as I rode on, blind as fate.

We had cheese and tea and coffee. Sahib Bey
offering to eat first to show me that it was all right,
which I said was nonsense. He said : "It may
not be political economy, but there are some great
advantages in war. It's very comfortable when
there are no exports, because it means that all
the things stay at home and are very cheap." He
tried to impress me with their weU-being. He
said he hated all politicians and had sworn never
to read the papers. The Turks had come sadly
into the war against us, otherwise gladly. They
wanted to regain the prestige that they had lost
in the Balkans. . . . He said, after I had talked
to him : " There are many of us who think like
you, but we must obey. We know that you are
just and that Moslems thrive under you, but you
have made cruel mistakes by us, the taking of those
two ships and the way in which they were taken."
He asked me a few questions, which I put aside.
He had had a conversation with Dash the day
before, when we parleyed. Dash is a most innocent
creature. He had apparently told him that 6.H.Q.

9

114 MONS, ANZAG, AND KUT

was an awful bore, and also the number of Turkish
prisoners we had taken. . . .

Sunday, May 23, 1915. Kaba Tepl We landed
a month ago to-day. We now hold a smaller
front than then. Also the Albion has gone
ashore. The rest of the fleet has left; she remains
a fixture. All the boats are rushing up to tow
her off. The Turks are sending in a hail of
shrapnel. ... It will be a bad business if they
don't get her off. . . . They have got her off,
thank the Lord, and every one is breathing more
freely. ^

We wonder if all the places with queer, accidental
names will one day be historical : Johnson's Jolly,
Dead Man's Ridge, Quinn's Post, The Valley of
Death, The Sphinx, Anzac — ^by the way, that's
not a name of good omen, as " anjak " in Turkish
means barely, only just — ^Plugge's Plateau. Plugge
is a grand man, wounded for the second time.
The New Zealanders are all most gallant
fellows. . . .

The big fight ought to come off, after the armistice*
Two more divisions have come up against us. All
quiet last night, but a shell came into the New
Zealand hospital on the beach and killed four
wounded men and a dresser and some more outside.
It's these new guns whose position we still do not
know.

Tuesday, May 25, 1916. Kaha Tepe. We had
the truce yesterday. I was afraid something might
go wrong, but it all went off all right. ■ Skeen,
Blamey,^ Howse, V.C.,' Hough and I started early.

> Now Brigadier-General, Australian Forces.
» Now Surgeon-General and Director-General, Medical Services
of Australia.

THE AEMISTICE 115

Skeen offered me breakfast but, like a fool, I re-
fused. He put some creosote on my handkerchief.
We were at the rendezvous on the beach at 6.30.
Heavy rain soaked us to the skin. At 7.30 we met
the Turks, Miralai Izzedin, a pleasant, rather sharp,
little man ; Arif, the son of Achmet Pasha, who
gave me a card, " Sculpteur et Peintre," and " Etu-
diant de Po6sie." I saw Sahib and had a few words
with him, but he did not come with us. Fahreddin
Bey came later. We walked from the sea and
passed immediately up the hill, through a field of
tall corn filled with poppies, then another corn-
field ; then the fea.'ful smell of death began as we
came upon scattered bodies. We mounted over
a plateau and down through gullies filled with
thyme, where there lay about 4,000 Turkish dead.
It was indescribable. One was grateful for the
rain and the grey pky. A Turkish Red Crescent
man came and gave me some antiseptic wool with
scent on it, and this they renewed frequently
There were two wounded crying in that multitude
of silence. The Turks were distressed, and Skeen
strained a point to let them send water to the first
wounded man, who must have been a sniper crawling
home. I walked over to the second, who lay with
a high circle of dead that made a mound round
him, and gave him a drink from my water-bottle,
but Skeen called me to come on and I had to leave
the bottle. Later a Turk gave it back to me. The
Turkish Captain with me said : "At this spectacle
even the most gentle must feel savage, and the
most savage must weep." The dead fill acres of
ground, mostly killed in the one big attack, but
some recently. They fill the myrtle-grown gullies.
One saw the result of machine-gun fire very clearly ;

116 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

entire companies annihilated — ^not wounded, but
killed, their heads doubled under them with the
impetus of their rush and both hands clasping
their bayonets. It was as if God had breathed
in their faces, as " the Assyrian came down like
the wolf on the fold."

The line was not easy to settle. Neither side
wanted to give its position or its trenches away.
At the end Skeen agreed that the Turks had been
fair. We had not been going very long when we
had a message to say that the Turks were
entrenching at Johnson's Jolly. Skeen had, how-
ever, just been there and seen that they were doing
nothing at all. He left me at Quiun's Post, looking
at the communication trench through which I
had spoken to the Turks. Corpses and dead men
blown to bits everywhere. Richards was with me
part of the time : easy to get on with ; also a gentleman
called indifferently by the men Mr. or Major Tibbs.
A good deal of friction at first. The trenches
were 10 to 15 yards apart. Each side was on the
qui vive for treachery. In one gully the dead had
got to be left unburied. It was impossible to bury
them without one side seeing the position of the
other. In the Turkish parapet there were many
bodies buried. Fahreddin told Skeen he wanted
to bury them, " but," he said, " we caimot take
them out without putting something in their place."
Skeen agreed, but said that this concession was
not to be taken advantage of to repair the trench.
This was a difficult business.

When our people complained that the Turks
were making loopholes, they invited me into their
trench to look. Then the Turks said that we
were stealing their rifles ; this came from the dead

THE AEMISTICE 117

land where we could not let them go. I went
down, and when I got back, very hot, they took
my word for it that we were not. There was some
trouble because we were always crossing each
other's lines. I talked to the Turks, one of whom
pointed to the graves. " That's poUtics," he said.
Then he pointed to the dead bodies and said:
"That's diplomacy. God pity aU of us poor
soldiers."

Much of this business was ghastly to the point
of nightmare. I found a hardened old Albanian
chaoush and got him to do anything I wanted.
Then a lot of other Albanians came up, and I said :
" Tuny a tyeta." ' I had met some of them in Janina.
They began clapjiing me on the back and cheering
while half a dozen funeral services were going on
aU round, conducted by the chaplains. I had to
stop them. I asked them if they did not want
an Imam for a service over their own dead, but
the old Albanian pagan roared with laughter and
said that their souls were aU right. They could
look after themselves. Not many signs of fanati-
cism. One huge, savage-looking Anatolian looked
curses at me. Greeks came up and tried to svir-
render to me,, but were ordered back by the Turks
pretty roughly.

Considering the number of their men we had
killed, they remained extraordinarily unmoved and
polite. They wouldn't have, if we had been
Russians. Blarney came to say that Skeen had
lost H. and wanted me, so he, Arif and I walked
to the sea. The burying had not been well done.
It was sometimes impossible to do it. . . . As we
went, we took our rifles from the Turkish side,
' The usual Albauian greeting.

118 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

minus their bolts, and gave the Turks their rifles
in the same way. . . .

Our men gave cigarettes to the Turks, and
beyond the storm-centre at Quinn's Post the feeling
was all right. We sat down and sent men to look
for Skeen. Arif was nervous and almost rude.
Then Skeen came. He told me to get back as
quickly as possible to Quinn's Post, as I said I was
nervous at being away, and to retire the troops
at 4 and the white-flag men at 4.15. I said to
Arif : " Everybody's behaved very well. Now
we must take care that nobody loses his head.
Your men won't shdot you and my men won't
shoot me, so we must walk about, otherwise a
gun will go off and everybody will get shot." But
Arif faded away. I got laack as quickly as possible.
Blarney went away on the left. I then found that
the Turks' time was eight minutes ahead of ours,
and put on our watches. The Turks asked me to
witness their taking the money from their dead,
as they had no officer there. They were very worried
by having no officer, and asked me if any one were
coming. I, of course, had no idea, but I told
told them I would see that they were all right. They
were very patient. . . .

The burying was finished some time before the
end. There were certain tricks on both sides.

Our men and the Turks began fraternizing,
exchanging badges, etc. I had to keep them apart.
At 4 o'clock the Turks came to me for orders. I
do not believe this could have happened anywhere
else. I retired their troops and ours, walking
along the line. At 4.7 I retired the white-flag
men, making them shake hands with our men.
Then I came to the upper end. About a dozen

THE AEMISTICE 119

Turks came out. I chaffed them, and said that
they would shoot me next day. They said, in
a horrified chorus : " God forbid ! " The Albanians
laughed and cheered, and said : " We will never
shoot you." Then the Australians began coming up,
and said : " Good-bye, old chap ; good luck ! " And
the Turks said : " Oghur Ola gule gule gedejekseniz,
gule gule gelejekseniz " (Smiling may you go and
smiling come again). Then I told them all to get
into their trenches, and unthinkingly went up to
the Turkish trench and got a deep salaam from
it. I told them that neither side would fire for
twenty-five minutes after they had got into the
trenches. One Turk was seen out away on our
left, but there was nothing to be done, and I think
he was all right. A couple of rifles had gone off
about twenty minutes before the ,end, but Potts
and I went hurriedly to and fro seeing it was all
right. At last we dropped into our trenches,
glad that the strain was over. I walked back
with Temperley. I got some raw whisky for the
infection in my throat, and iodine for where the
barbed wire had torn my feet. There was a hush
over the Peninsula. . . .

Wednesday, May 26, 1915. Kaba Tepl This
morning I was talking to Dix, asking him if he
believed there were submarines. " Yes," he said,
and then swore and added: "There's the Triumph
sinking." Every picket-boat dashed off to pick
up the survivors. The Turks behaved well in not
shelling. There was fury, panic and rage on the
beach and on the hill. I heard Uncle Bill, half
off his head, saying : " You should kill all enemies.
Like a wounded bird, she is. Give them cigarettes.
Swine! Like a wounded bird. The swine!" He

120 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

was shaking his fist. Men were crying and cursing.
Very different from yesterday's temper.

This afternoon I went round past Monash Gully,
towards Kaba Tep6, and bathed. I got shelled,
and came back over the ridges having a beastly
time from the shrapnel which hunted me.

We have now got a sap under Quinn's Post.
The flies and ants are past endurance.

Thursday, May 27, 1915. Kaha Tepe. A very
wet night. I wish the Turks would forget how to
shoot. Here we are for an indefinite period without
the power of repl3dng effectively and with the
knowledge that we are firmly locked outside the
back door of a side-show. . . .

Went with the General to General Russell's
trenches. They are very much improved. The
men call an ideal trench a Godley-Braithwaite
trench ; that is, tall enough for General Godley
and broad enough for Colohel Braithwaite. Bathed.
Charlie Bentinck arrived. His destroyer lay just
off the beach and was shelled. Some sailors and
five soldiers kiUed. Forty-five wounded. Very
unfortunate. If they had come yesterday, it would
have been aU right — a quiet day, though we had
thirty men sniped. The Majestic reported sunk
off HeUes. Off to Mudros to get stores.

Friday, May 28, 1915. Mudros. Left after
many delays, and slept on deck. Very cold. It's
a pretty tall order for the French to put black
Senegalese cannibals into Red Cross uniform. . . .

Saturday, May 29, 1915. Lemnos. Drove across
the island to Castro. There was a delightful spring
half a mile from Castro and a eaf 6 kept by a Greek.
His wife had been killed by the Turks. Great
fig-trees and gardens. I met two naval officers,

MUDEOS 121

who told me Wedgwood had died of wounds. I
am very sorry ; he was a very fine man. I admired
him a lot. Castro is beautiful, with balconies
over the narrow streets, half Turk and half Greek,
and shady gardens. I bathed in a transparent
sea, facing Athos, which was gleaming like a diamond.
I watched its shadow come across the eighty miles
of sea at sunset, as Homer said it did. I found a
Greek, who had been Cromer's cook. He said he
would come back and cook for me, if there was no
danger. He said he knew that G.H.Q. cooks were
safe, but his wife would not let him go on to the
Peninsula. He said her idea of warfare was wrong.
She always thought of men and bullets skipping
about together on a hillside.

Sunday, May 30, 1915. Mudros. I bathed
before dawn and went back to Mudros with masses
of mosquito-netting, etc. Turkish prisoners of the
French were being guarded by Greeks. It was
rather like monkeys looking after bears. They
wore uniforms that were a cross between Ali Pasha
of Janina and Little Lord Fauntleroy. I saw
H., who had been on the River Clyde. He looked
as if he were still watching the sea turn red with
blood, as he described the landing on Gallipoli.
Jack was sick, and I had to leave him with my
coat. Went and saw my friend the Papas of the
little Greek church on the hill.

Monday, May 31, 1915. Anzac. I saw Hutton
this morning, slightly wounded. Bathed at the
farthest point towards Kaba Tep6, but had to
fly with my clothes in my hand, leaving my
cigarettes. . . .

Wednesday, June 2, 1915. Kaba Tepe. Had a
picturesque examination of a Greek peasant this

122 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

morning. It was a fine picture, with the setting
of the blue sea and the mountains. The man
himself was patriarchal and biblical, surrounded
by tall English officers and haK-naked soldiers.
Last night we sent up bombs from Japanese mortars
by Quinn's. It sounded beastly. This morning
I went to Reserve Gully with the General. Monash's
Brigade is resting there for the first time for five
weeks. The General, looking like a Trojan hero,
made them a fine speech from a sort of natural
throne in the middle of the sunlit amphitheatre,
in which they all sat, tier after tier of magnificent-
looking fellows, brown as Indians. Bullets swept
over all the time, sometimes drowning the General's
voice. . . . Have just heard that Quinn is killed.
I am very sorry. He was a fine, jolly, gallant
fellow.

Friday, June 4, 1915. Anzac. Nothing doing.
George Lloyd came over. Very glad to see him.
This morning I went with Shaw to the extreme
left, through fields of poppies, thyme and lavender.
We saw a vulture high overhead, and the air was
full of the song of larks. At Helles there was a
savage attack going on. There was very bad
sniping. In some places the trenches are only
knee-high ; in other places there are no trenches
and the Turks are anything from four to eight
hundred yards off. Yesterday seventeen men were
hit at one place, they said, by one sniper. At
one place on the way, we ran like deer, dodging.
The General, when he had had a number of buUets
at him, also ran. Sniping is better fun than shrap-
nel ; it's more human. You pit your wits against
the enemy in a rather friendly sort of way. A lot
of vultures collecting.

ANZAC 123

Saturday, June 5, 1915. Anzac. Examined six-
teen prisoners. Food good, munitions plentiful,
morale all right. The individuals fed up with the
war, but the mass obedient and pretty willing.
No idea of surrendering. They think they are
going to win. There was one Greek, a Karamanly,
who only talked Turkish. He did not say until
to-night that he was wounded. The flies are bad.

Sunday, June 6, 1915. Anzac. Went to the
service this morning with the General, in the
amphitheatre. The sermon was mainly against
America for not coming into the war, and also
against bad language. The chaplain said he could
not understand the meaning of it. The men laughed.
So did I.

Monday, June 7, 1915. Kaha Tepe. This morn-
ing the land was sweet as Eden and there was
the calm of the first creation. H. has been made
a new Uriah the Hittite, but not because of
Mrs. H. Last night I was invaded by mice. There
is tremendous shelling going on now. This after-
noon S. B., Onslow and I climbed a hill and had a
beautiful view. Every one is rather ill and feverish.
I have no news about Jack. The Intelligence
office has been moved to a higher and safer place.
Pirie Gordon, poor chap, has gone sick a long time
ago. I rather liked the stuffy old place, which
was called " The Mountain Path to the Jackal's
Cave."

The attack last night failed, but the drone of
the rifles went on unceasingly, like the drone of
a dry waterfall. We shall not get to Constantinople
unless the flat-faced Bulgars come in.

Yesterday I lunched with Temperley at the H.Q.
of Monash Valley. Times have changed : it's fairly

124 MONS, ANZAO, AND KUT

safe going there through a long sap they have dug,
and the noise is less bad.

Colonel had seen a lot of the Crown Prince

in India, and said he was a very good fellow. Dined
with Woods, Dix, S. B. and Edwards. Lots of
champagne for once ; a very good dinner.

I went to No. 2 Outpost with the General. There
is a sap all the way now. Only one sniper the whole
way. The Turkish birds were singing beautifully
as we went. There was also a Turkish snake,
which I believed was quite harmless, but Tahu
killed it. The men are getting pretty tired. They
are not as resigned as their ten thousand brother-
monks over the way at Mount Athos.

Friday, June 11, 1915. Kaha Tepe. The Austra-
lians and New Zealanders have given up wearing
clothes. They lie about and bathe and become
darker than Indians. The General objects to this.
" I suppose," he says, " we shall have our servants
waiting on us like that." The flies are very bad,
so are the mice, and so is the shelling. . . .

Sunday, June 13, 1915. Kaba Tepe. A lot of
mules and several men hit yesterday. Last night,
S. B. and I were on the beach, when a man on a
stretcher went by, groaning rhythmically. I thought
he had been shot through the brain. Later on I
went into the hospital to find a wounded Turk,
and found that this man had never been hit at all.
He had been doing very good work tUl a shell
exploded near him and gave him a shock. Then
he went on imitating a machine-gun. Some men
in a sap up at Quinn's have been going off their
heads.

Awful accounts of Mudros : flies, heat, sand,
no water, typhoid. To-day are the Greek elections.

ANZAC 126

Am dining with H. Woods. " The beach " now
says that Ot has been poisoned by the Greek
guides, whom he illtreats and uses as cooks. I
shouldn't wonder. The shelling is bad. I am
going to make a new dugout to get away from
the flies and mice. The Turkish prisoners will
do this. I pay them a small sum.

Tuesday, Jwne 15, 1915. Kaha Tepe. Colonel
Chauvel ' has pleurisy, Colonel Johnston » enteric.
The sea's high and the Navy depressed. . . . One
man and two mules killed in our guUy this morning ;
the body of one mule blown about 50 yards both
ways.

Wednesday, June 16, 1915. Kaba Tepe. Bain. I
was to have gone to Helles with Woods to see Dedez,
but no boats went ; it was too rough. I was going
to talk about spies to S. B., when General CunliflEe
Owen said to me : " Wait a bit. The shelling is
too bad. We will go along together." But I was
in too much of a hurry. A shell fell in the gully
as I crossed, and Woods came out to see where
it had hit. It went into Machonochie's dugout,
where H. was, and blew him out of his dugout,
black and shaken. It destroyed his furniture. I
felt sorry for him. Ot tried to turn him out of
the Intelligence dugout, but we protested.

The General has come back with the latest
casualty lists from France. . . .

Thursday, June 17, 1915. Helles. Thirty men
killed and wounded on the beach to-day. This
morning I came to Helles with Woods. As we

I Commanding 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade. Now
Lieut.-General Sir H. Chauvel, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.

» Commanding New Zealand Infantry Brigade. Afterwards
killed at battle of Messines in 1917.

126 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

got therfe a submarine had two shots at one of our
transports by us. I was to have seen Dedez, but
he had gone ofiE to see Gouraud. George Peel
walked in and took me round the beach, two miles
on. We climbed on to the headland, in what he
called " the quiet track of the Black Marias."
He talked of every mortal thing — the future Liberal
and Socialist, the possibility of touching the heart
of the people, the collapse of Christianity, our past
and our policy. I left him and walked back across
thyme and asphodel, Asia glowing like a jewel
across the Dardanelles in the sunset. At night I
talked late and long with Dash. Every Department
is jealous, every one is at cross-purposes, no co-
operation between the War Office and the Foreign
Office.

Walked in the morning to the H.Q. of the R.N.D.
with Whittall. We were shelled most of the way
in the open landscape. There was no cover any-
where. It felt unfamiliar. I was unfavourably
impressed with the insecurity of life in this part
of the world, and wished for Anzac. In the evening
we drank mavrodaphne and tried to get rid of

Friday, June 18, 1915. Kaba Tepe. I left
Helles in the middle of very heavy shelling, a star
performance. A lot of horses killed this morning.
A submarine popped up last night. As we came
back to Anzac the Turks shelled our trawler and
hit her twice, but without doing any damage.

Shelling grew worse at Anzac, and sickness began
to make itself felt. Men were sent across to Imbros
when it was possible to rest.

Diary. On June 25th I went across to Imbros
with H. Woods and the Greek miller, Nikolas.

ANZAC 127

Hawker was there, and E. of Macedonia. B. is
very unpopular. If he takes a dislike to a man
he digs around his dugout, until it falls in on him.
The chief R. A.M.C. officer, an Irishman, was mourning
over the ruins of his home. We slept uncomfort-
ably on the ground, with flies to keep us warm.

As I was writing this a shell burst outside my
dugout, a lot of shrapnel coming through, and one
bullet glancing oflE the typewriter, which has just
come. At the same time Jack was hit across the
gully going' from my dugout to his, ConoUy,
the escort, and I carried him down, after binding
his leg up, under heavy fire. Then I nipped back
to get some of his stuff to take oflE, but on going
back to the beach found that he had gone. Many
men hit on the beach. Thousands of flies on
the wounded. The Greneral's blankets riddled with
buUets. They have our range, pat. Two days
ago Colonel Parker had his chair and table smashed
while he was in his dugout. He left it to have
tea with Wagstaffe. There he was reading when
another bullet tore his paper in two. I have been
covered with dirt several times in the last days.
L. S. Amery came with K. I only saw him for a
minute, worse luck, but he is coming back to-
morrow, I hope, when we can have a talk. G.H.Q.
turned up in force, and walked about like wooden
images.

We have a clerk here, Venables. He has got
tired of writing, and, wanting to change the pen
for the sword, borrowed a rifle and walked up to
the front line at Quinn's Post. There he popped
his head in and said : " Excuse me, is this a private
trench, or may any one fire out of it ? "

128 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

The sound of battle has ended. Men are bathing.
The clouds that the cannonade had called up are
gone, and the sea is still and crimson in the sunset
to Imbros and Samothrace.

Tuesday, June 29, 1915. Anzac. We have
advanced 1,000 yards down at HeUes, but no
details yet. Many men shot here yesterday by
the Anafarta gun. I should think this gun had
as good a tale of killed and wounded as any gun
in the war. Every day it gets its twenty odd
on the beach. The Australians attacked on the
right yesterday. Fifty killed and wounded ; they
think the Turks suffered more heavily. I went
with the General to the extreme left. Terrific
heat. We came to a valley filled with thyme and
lavender, which the Maoris are to inhabit. The
men were bathing beyond Shrapnel Point. 'Hiey
say the Turks let them. I had two letters — one
two months old, a curious one to receive here, from
an Enghshwoman, wife of the ex-Grand Vizier of
Afghanistan. He was a progressive man, and is
therefore in an Afghan prison. She wants work
for her son. Wants him to be a saddler, a job
a lot of men here would like. All my stuff looted
coming from Egypt.

Men are practising bomb-throwing, aU over the
place. They are mostly half-naked, and darker
than Red Indians. It's a day of blessed peace,
but there's a lot of feeling about the Anafarta
gun, and bathing is stopped on the beach till
night.

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Anzac. Last night
I went down to the hospital and was inoculated
for cholera by C, a witty man. A trench had
been blown in, and men were lying groaning on

ANZAC 129

the floor, most of them suffering from shell-shock,
not wounds, but some Of the wounds horrible. . . .
I asked C. Tdty the wounded were not sent to
Cyprus instead of Mudros. He said : "Because it's a
splendid climate and there is heaps of water." The

chief doctor at Mudros is useless, the second ■

(With regard to the second doctor I regret that
the diary is libellous.) Anyway, what is certain
is that the condition of the sick and wounded is
awful. This morning it's very rough, and I can't
get out to Jack at the hospital ship, as prisoners
are coming ih. . . .

July 1, 1915. Anzac. I examined the prisoners,
amongst them a taU Armenian lawyer, who talked
some English. I asked him how he had surren-
dered. He said : "I saw two gentlemen with
their looking-glasses, and came over to them."
By this he meant two officers with periscopes. He
said that the psychology of the Turks is a curious
thing. They do not fear death, yet are not
brave. . . .

No water came in yesterday. The storm wrecked
the barges and the beach is covered with lighters.
We got brackish water from the hill. I could not
get to Jack for work.

At lunch I heard there were wounded crying
on Walker's Ridge, and went up there with Zacha-
riades. We found a first-rate Austrahan, Major
Reynell. We went through the trenches, dripping
with sweat ; it was a boiling day, and my head
reeled from inoculation. We had to crawl through
a secret sap over a number of dead Turks, some of
whom were in a ghastly condition, headless and
covered with flies. Then out from the darknesd
into another sap, with a dead Turk to walk

10

130 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

over. The Turkish trenches were 30 yards off, and
the dead lay between the two lines.

When I called I was answered at once by a Turk.
He said he could not move. ... I gave him a drink,
and Reynell and I carried him in, stumbling over
the dead among whom he lay. I went back for
my water-bottle, but the Turks began shooting
as a warning, and I had to go back into the trench.

An awful time getting the Turk through the
very narrow trench. I got one other, unwounded,
shamming dead. We threw him a rope, and in
he came.

The taking of the second Turk was a curious
episode that perhaps deserves a little more descrip-
tion than is given by the diary. The process
of catching Turks fascinated the Australians, and
amongst them an R.A.M.C. doctor who came round
on that occasion. This officer prided himself upon
neatness and a smart appearance, when the dust
and heat of the Dardanelles had turned every one
else into scallywags. After he had attended to
the first wounded man, he pointed out the second
Turk lying between our trenches and the Turks'
and only a few yards from either. " You go out
again, sir," said the Austrahans ; " it's as good
as a show." I, however, took another view. I
called out to the Turk : " Do you want any water. ? "
" By God," he whispered back, " I do, but I am
afraid of my people." We then threw him a rope
and pulled him in. He told us that the night
before he had lost direction in the attack. Fire
seemed to be coming every way, and it had seemed
to him the best plan to fall and lie still amongst
his dead comrades. The doctor gave him some water.

ANZAC 131

with which he rinsed his mouth, and I left him
under the charge of the R.A.M.C. doctor. This
is what happened subsequently. They had to
crawl back through the secret sap, from which
the bodies of the dead Turks had by that time been
removed and left at the entrance. The Turk
was blindfolded, but he was able to see under the
handkerchief, and when he saw his dead comrades,
over whose bodies he had to step, he leapt to the
conclusion that it was our habit to bring our prisoners
to one place and there to kiU them. He gave
one panic-stricken yell ; he threw his arms round
the neck of the well-dressed officer ; they fell and
roUed upon the corpses together, the Turk in con-
vulsions of fear clinging to the neck of the doctor,
pressing his face to the faces of the dead till he
was covered with blood and dust and the ghastly
remains of death, while the soldiers stood round
saying to the Turk : " Now, don't you carry on so."

Diary. Friday, July 2. Anzac. This morn-
ing I had a magnificent bathe with General
Birdwood. At night a great storm blew up. The
lightning played in splendid glares over Imbros
and Samothrace. The sea roared, the thunder
crashed and rain spouted down. After a time
that stopped and a cloud, black as ink, came down
upon us like a paU.

Yesterday mourning met the two Whittalls going
to Helles with General de Lotbiniere and his
periscopes.

I went off to the Sicilia to see Jack, and had a lot
of trouble about a pass. I saw Jack. He said
they had re-bound his leg on the beach, but that
it had not been looked at for eighteen hours on

132 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

the boat. It had swelled to double its size. Then
a doctor came and said the bandage had been done
too tight, and there was a chance of his losing
his leg. I felt absolutely savage. . . . Saw General
House, ^ V.C., on shore and got him to promise
to do what he could. We had a bad time going
home. We were slung off the ship in wooden cases.
It was very rough indeed, and when the wooden
case hit the flat barge it bounced hke anything.
Then we were towed"^ out on this flat barge, open
to the great waves and shrapnel, to a lighter, and
left oflE Anzac for a couple of hours. The Turks
sent a few shells, absent-mindedly. Finally, a
trawler brought us off, very angry.

S. dined, a scholarly fanatic, interesting about
the next war, which he thinks will be with
Russia, in fifteen years. A lot of people going
sick.

I saw Cox to-night, who said that this is the worst
storm we have had. We have only one day's
water supply. We could have had as much as
we had wanted, but many of the cans stored on
the beach are useless, as they have had holes
knocked in them by the shrapnel. We are not as
abstemious as the Turks, who had been lying for
so many hours under the sun, and shall suffer
from thirst badly.

Saturday, July 3, 1915. Anzac. Macaulay has
come as our artillery officer. I dined with him and
H. Woods last night. Yesterday it rained. Jack's
boat has gone. We are being bafily shelled here.
I shall have to change my dugout, if this goes on.
The guide Katzangaris has been hit in the mouth.

> Now Ideut. -General Sir Neville, Direcstor of the Australian
Medical Service.

KABA TEPlS 133

Sunday, July 4. Saw the Maoris, who had just
landed. General Godley made them a first-class
speech. They danced a very fine Haka with
tremendous enthusiasm in his honour when he
had finished. They liked digging their dugouts,
and seemed to hke it when they came to human
remains. . . . More people going sick. Doctor F.
told me that he and another doctor had asked to
be allowed to help on board the hospital ships
where they have more wounded than they can
deal with, short-handed as they are, but have
been refused permission by the R.A.M.C.

There has been a great explosion at Achi Baba.
Macaulay saw a transport of ours sunk this sfter-
noon. . . . G. L. came ashore with depressing
accounts of Russia. He is probably going to come
on this beach. Hope he does. Went off and
bathed with Macaulay. Saw Colonel Bauchop, who
promised me a present of some fresh drinking-
water to-morrow.

Monday, July 5, 1915. Kaba Tepe. A breath-
less, panting morning, still and blue and fiery hot,
with not a ripple on the sea. Colonel Bauchop,
commanding the Otago Mounted Rifles, was shot
in the shoulder last night. This morning we have
had an exhibition of " f rightfulness " in the shape
of vast shells. They burst with a tremendous
roar that echoes to the sky and across the sea for
more than a minute. Their case or bullets fall
over the sea in a great area. They started by
striking the sea and raising great columns of water.
Now they burst and fall on land and sea.

It has had the great result of getting rid of Mr.
Lock, the Sociahst Czech, from the doorway of
my dugout. He was an undergraduate at — —

134 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

and afterwards a Labour candidate. Now he is
Colonel P.'s cook. \

The transport that Macaulay saw go down was
French, Six lives lost. The explosion down south
was a French ammunition store. This shelling
makes one's head ache.

Tuesday, July 6th. Kaha Tepe. Yesterday I
went to Quinn's Post with General Godley in
the morning. There was a fair amount of shelling.
They had just hit thirteen men in Courtney's before
we got there. We went into a mine that was being
dug towards and under the Turkish trenches. At
the end of the sap the Turks were only six to eight
feet away. We could hear them picking. The
time for blowing in had very nearly come. These
underground people take it all as a matter of course.
I should hate fighting on my stomach in a passage
two feet high, yards under the ground. The Turks
were throwing bombs from the trenches, and these
hit the ground over us, three of them, making it
shudder. Down below they talk in whispers. We
went round the trenches. Saw none so fine as last
time, when we came to the Millionaires' Sap, so
called because it was made by six AustraUans,
each the son of a millionaire.

In the afternoon I tried to sleep, but there was
too much shelling. Kyumjiyan was hit, and has
gone ; S. B. was grazed. It was 11.2 shells filled
with all kinds of stuff. We answered with a monitor
whose terrific percussions shook my dugout, bringing
down dust and stones. A submarine appeared,
and all the destroyers were after her. Then two
aeroplanes started a fight as the sun set down
towards Hellea, appearing and vanishing behind
crimson clouds. Captain Buck, the Maori doctor

KA.BA TEPE 136

and M.P., dined with us, to wind up an exciting
day.

This morning is like yesterday. No breath of
air, but the day is more clear, and Samothrace
and Imbros look very peaceful. Early again the
shelling began. As I was shaving outside three
shells hit the beach just in front. I wasn't watching
the third, but suddenly heard a great burst of
laughter. At the first shell a bather had rushed
back to his dugout ; the shell had come and
knocked it in on the top of him, and he was dug
out, naked and black, but smiling and none the
worse. " Another blasted sniper," he said, which
made the men laugh.

Active preparations are being made to fight
the gas, as the Intelligence says it is going to be
used. Am going out with the General at 9.30.
Was sent to get Colonel Parker, but found him sick,
and under pretty heavy fire, having a new dugout
built. Came back and stood with the General,
Thoms and others outside Headquarters. A shell
burst just by us, bruised the General in the ribs,
and filled his eyes with dirt. Went out with Colonel
Anthill and Poles. Talked of arranging a truce
to bury the Turkish dead on our parapet. They
said that otherwise our men must get cholera ;
the heat and sand and flies and smell is awful.
We met Colonel Bauchop with his arm in a sling,
but the bullet out of his shoulder, and Colonel
White with his head still bandaged. The Austra-
lians very cheerful.

Wednesday, July 7, 1915. Kaha Tepe. A fierce,
expectant dawn. We shelled f;iriou8ly at 4.30 a.m.
Now absolute peace on a glassy sea. Last night
Bentinck, Jack Anderson and I bathed. I was

136 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

at the end of the pier ; as I was beginning to dress
a shell burst very close, the smoke and powder in
my face. I fled half dressed; Colonel P. rose Uke
Venus from the sea and followed with nothing.
A calm marine gave me my cigarette-holder.

One of the prisoners reported that on the occasion
of the armistice Turkish Staff officers had put on
Red Crescent clothes in order to have a look at
our trenches. . . . No news of Jack.

The Turks put up five crosses yesterday, all of
which we shot down. I first thought it was probably
Greeks or Armenians who wanted to show they
were Christians, wishing to surrender, and tele-
phoned to Courtney's to see if I could get into
touch with them, but now I think it's probably
Turks who were anxious to make us shoot at the
sign of our own religion. In this they succeeded.

Colonel Johnson, Commanding the New Zealand
Infantry Brigade, gone sick. I persuaded the mess
to get inoculated for cholera. Last night I dined
with Woods and Macaulay. They told Eastern
stories, and we had a very contented time, drinking
mavrodaphne and looking at the sea.

The Turks shelled a httle after eight, in answer to
our tiresome provocative monitor fire. This morning
Tahu arrived from Egypt with letters. The Turks
are bombing something cruel from Kaba Tepe, . . .
It's a beautiful sight — a sea like lapis-lazuli and a
burning sun, with columns of water like geysers
where the shells hit. A good many men hit here
to-day.

Saturday, July 10, 1915. Kaha Tepe. I went
with General Godley to the Triad, and dined with
Admiral de Robeck. Took the General's things
to put them on board the picket-boat, but as I

KABA TEPi: 137

got there a shell struck her and knocked a hole
in her. There was another one, and we sat and
waited uncomfortably in this till he came. , . .
Found Alec Ramsay on board. Slept in Commodore
Roger Keyes' cabin. Very comfortable. He was
very kind. Went to G.H.Q. and had lunch with
L. and Bob Graves.

Sunday, July Wth. Felt much better. Went
ashore and saw Colonel Hawker and the Turkish
prisoners. . . . Came back late at night, after some
very jolly days. Best week-end I ever spent. The
Turks have asked for another armistice in the
south. This has been refused. If they attack,
they will have to do it across their dead, piled high,
and this is not good for morale.

By this time the persecutions of the interpreters
had greatly diminished. They were still badly
treated by a man called Ot, but to a large extent
they had won the respect of the troops by their
behaviour. The chief interpreter was an old Greek
of some sixty-two or sixty-three years, Mr. Kyria-
kidis, who was given a medal for conspicuous
gallantry at the bombardment of Alexandria and
had served with General Stuart's unfortunate
expedition. He was a gentleman, and one of
the straightest men I have met. His simplicity,
courtesy and unfaiUng courage had gained him
many friends. He was also endowed with consider-
able humour.

A relation had sent me a gas mask, at that time
a rarity at Anzac. I did not believe that I should
need it, and made a present of it to the first man
I met, who happened to be Mr. Kyriakidis. He
weiit down and played poker with the other inter-

138 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

preters on the beach. He put on my respirator
as a poker mask, with much swagger. This put
the fear of death into the interpreters, who sent a
deputation to G.H.Q. Intelligence, insisting that
they should also be provided with masks.

Monday, July 12, 1915. Kaba Tepe. By the
way, an unhappy shadow was shot yesterday,
an interpreter of whom we none of us knew any-
thing, and who was on no list. Things are not
very comfortable. The fire is increasingly heavy.
All the air is full of thudding and broken echoes.
No one minds anything much, but high explosive. . . .
The hospitals are being moved. They had too
many casualties where they were before.

Tuesday, July 13th. Kaba Tepe. Tremendous fire
round Achi Baba yesterday. French advanced 150
and we 200 yards. Don't know what the losses
were. I went with Macaulay and Woods to No. 3
Post, to Bauchop's Fountain. They can snipe there
very close, and killed a man a couple of days ago,
two yards off under the olives, and wounded his
mate, who crawled back into the sandy way. On
both sides there is tall wild lavender and what
M. calls pig's parsley.

We crawled down a sandy path to the sea, M.
rather sick. Met the General going back, who told
us not to bathe. In the evening Tahu got out his
gramophone and we had some good songs when
the shooting was not too much.

Ramadan began to-day. George Lloyd arrived
this afternoon and said they wanted to send me
to Tenedos for a special job.

Yesterday evening General Godley went to
Courtney's Post. As he got there the Turks shelled

ANZAC 139

with heavy stuff, killing and wounding about twenty
men. Reynell came to see me. I like him very
much indeed.

Diary. Sunday, July 18, 1915. Kaba Tepe.
They are now shelling the pier, and killed a doctor,
cutting off both his legs, and several other people,
when I was bathing from the pier. Everybody is
again going sick. The situation is changing. Every
night we are landing guns. The moon is young
now and growing. It seems, therefore, reasonable
to expect that we carmot land forces of men that
take time before the nights are moonless ; that is,
in about a month's time the preparations ought to
be ready.

A few days ago we had an attack on Achi Baba,
won about 400 yards and lost about 5,000 men.
Two battalions got out of touch and were lost
for a considerable time. The "Imbros Journal,"
" Dardanelles Driveller," or whatever it's called,
said " their return was as surprising as that of
Jonah from the belly of the whale." Good, happy
author !

A German Taube over us throwing bombs and
also heavy stuff, but not much damage lately.
George Lloyd ' was here this afternoon, and while
we talked a shell burst and hit four men.

Monday, July 19, 1915. Kaba Tepe. My dugout
has now become a centre for Australian and New
Zealand officers, all good fellows. I had it made
small on purpose, so that no one would offer to share
it with me, and that makes it less convenient for
the crowd that now sit in it. Two old friends
come when the day's work is over, and grow senti-
I Now Sir George Lloyd, Governor of Bombay.

140 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

mental by moonlight; both ill and, I am afraid,
getting worse. All the talk is now about gassing.
It is thought that they will do it to us here.
As usustl, new troops are reported to be coming
against us.

Tuesday, July 20, 1915. Kaha Tepe. There is
always something fresh here. Now a lot of sharks
are supposed to have come in. During the last
two days there has been absolute silence, no shelling
all at, nothing but the sound of crickets and at
night a singsong chorus as the men drag up the
great tanks prepared for water. S. B. yesterday
worked out a theory to prove that the Turks were
to attack us last night. (1) No gunfire yesterday ;
the reason being they (the Turks) were moving
troops. They didn't want us to fire at their
troops, therefore didn't draw fire by shooting at
us. (2) Ulemas have come down. There must
be a special reason for this. (3) 10,000 coming
up. Gas being prepared. All this means an attack
on Anzac. To wipe us out would be a great feather
in their cap. I am inclined to doubt another
great attack. . . . Tempers all a bit ruffled. General
Birdwood is sick. The heat is fierce and the
stillness absolute. This afternoon I heard from
Dedez, who asked me to go to Tenedos for a
time. . . .

Wednesday, July 21, 1915. Kaba Tepe. There
is something uncanny about this calm. No shots
at all. News that the Italian Ambassador at
Constantinople has gone nap. We have had very
little news of Italy. ... I wonder if the Turks
are likely to attack on the eve of Constitution Day.

Saturday, July 24, 1915. Imbros. On Wednesday
I went over to G.H.Q. and met old friends among

IMBROS 141

the war correspondents. Met some of the New
Zealanders who had come over for a rest, but were
coming back for the expected attack. Meanwhile,
they had been kept on fatigue most of the time,
and were unutterably weary. At Imbros I was
ordered to go to Tenedos and Mytilene.

Thursday, July 22nd. Came back to Anzac in
the same boat with Ashmead Bartlett and Nevin-
son,' and got leave to take them round in the
afternoon.

Later on^ during one of the worst days of the
Suvla fighting, I met my friend Nevinson picking
his way amongst the woimded on their stretchers
under fire. " After this," he said, decisively, " I
shall confine myself strictly to revolutions."

Diary. July 23rd. Started for Imbros and went
in the BaccJiante pinnace, which was leaking badly
from a sheU hole. There were six of iis on deck,
and one man was hit when we were about a hundred
yards out. We put back and left him on shore.

Saturday, July 24:th. Imbros. Went for a ride
on a mule, and had a bathe.

At this point in the campaign, though the morale
was excellent, depression began to grow. There
was a great deal of sickness, from which practically
no one escaped, though it was less virulent in its
form than later in the summer. I had been ill
for some time, and was very anxious to avoid being
invalided to Egypt, and was grateful for the chance
of going to the islands for a change of climate and
light work, for the few days that were sufficient
to give another lease of health.

' War correspondents.

142 MONS, ANZAC, AND KCJT

The feeling that invades almost every side-show,
sooner or later, that the home authorities cared
nothing and knew nothing about the Dardanelles,
was abroad. The policy and the strategy of the ex-
pedition were bitterly criticized. I remember a friend
of mine saying to me : " All this expedition is like
one of Walter Scott's novels, upside down. Walter
Scott generally put his hero at the top of a winding
stair, where he comfortably disposed, one by one, of
a hundred of his enemies. "Now," he said, "what
we have done was, first of all to warn the Turks
that we were going to attack by having a naval
bombardment. That made them fortify the Dar-
danelles, but stUI they were not completely ready.
We then send a small force to attack, to tell them
that we really are in earnest, and to ask them if
they are quite ready. In fact, we have put the man
who ought to be, not the hero, but the villain of
the piece, at the top of the corkscrew stair, and we
have given him so much notice that when the hero
attacks the villain has more men at the top of the
circular stair than the hero has at the bottom.
It's like throwing pebbles at a stone wall," he said,
mixing his metaphors.

Diary. Sunday, July 25, 1915. On the Sea. I
left for Tenedos ; a most beautiful day. We have
just been to Anzac, very burnt and wounded
amongst the surrounding greenery. Pretty peaceful
there, only a few bullets coming over.

Perhaps the record of a sojourn in the Greek
Islands on what was really sick-leave, as the work
was of the lightest, should not be included in a war
diary, but the writer looks back with amusement
and pleasure to days that were not uneventful.

THE ISLANDS 143

They were passed with friends who were playing
a difficult and most arduous part, and whose services,
in many cases, have not received the recognition
that was their due.

It was pleasant once again to be lord of the
horizon, to have space through which to roam,
and lovely hills and valleys to ride across in the
careless, scented air of the Mediterranean summer,
with the sea shining a peacock-blue through the
pines. It is this space and liberty that men cramped
in a siege desire, more than the freedom from the
shelling of the enemy's guns. There was much,
too, that was opera hcmjfe in the Islands, that made
a not unpleasant contrast to the general life at
Anzac.

If there was spy mania on the Peninsula, it was
multiplied tenfold, and quite reasonably, on the
Islands, where part of the population were strongly
pro- Ally, another part pro-German, while others
were anti- British by an accidental kind of ricochet.
These were the royahst followers of King Constan-
tino, who hated Venizelos, and consequently the
friends of Venizelos, Great Britain and France.

The situation on the Islands was one with which
it was extremely hard to cope. We were very
anxious to safeguard the lives of our men, and to
prevent information going to the enemy, and, at
the same time, not to pursue German methods. It
was unceasing work, with a great strain of responsi-
bility. There was an inevitable va et vient between
the Peninsula and Imbros. From Imbros boats
could slip across to Tenedos, Mytilene or the main-
land. The native caiques would drop in at evening,
report, be ordered to stay till further notice, and
would drift away like ghosts in the night. Men,

144 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

and women, performed remarkable feats, in appear-
ing and disappearing. They were like pictures on
a film in their coming and their going. Watchers
and watched, they thrust and parried, discovered
and concealed, glowed on the picture and darkened.
Anatasio, a Serbian by birth, was one of our
workers, conspicuous for his quickness and in-
telligence. At the outbreak of the war he had
already been five months in an Austrian prison
at Cattaro, but the prospect of battle stimulated
his faculties, and he escaped. One day at luncheon
I asked him where it was that he had learned
Italian, which he did not talk very well. "While
I was in prison at Smyrna," said he. " What
for ? " said I. " For stabbing a Cretan," said
he, and added that he would rather be five years
in prison in Turkey than one in Austria. Then
there was Avani, one of the most vivid personaUties
that I have ever met. He was a poet and a clair-
voyant, a mesmerist and a masseur, a specialist
in rheumatism and the science of detection, once
a member of General Chermside's gendarmerie
in Crete, and ex-chief of the Smyrna fire brigade.
The stories of him are too many, and too''
flamboyant, to tell.

Diary. Avani mesmerized the wife of the Arme-
nian dragoman. Unfortunately it went wrong.
Her obedience to his volition was delayed and she
only obeyed his commands in the wrong company
some hours after.

He had given proof of rare courage, and also
considerable indiscretion. On one occasion, armed
to the teeth, he burst into a perfectly innocent
house at night, and, revolver in hand, hunted a

TENBDOS 145

terrified inhabitant. His only evidence against this
man was, that when he had been caught and hurled
to the ground and sat upon, his heart had beaten
very fast, which would not happen, insisted Avani,
ijE he had not been guilty of some crime.

Amongst our opponents were the romantic but
sinister Vassilaki family, two brothers and three
lovely sisters. Talk about them in the Islands
was almost as incessant as was talk about shelling
on the Peninsula.

' Diary. Monday, July 26, 1915. Tenedos. Yes-
terday I was very ill, and again to-day, but was
injected with something or other and feel better,
but weak. Tried to sleep yesterday, but one of
our monitors at Rabbit Island bombarded hugely,
shaking the bugs down on me. This place is clean,
but there are bugs and some Hce, Last night I
dined with the Governor, Colonel MuUins, and a
jolly French doctor, and Thompson, who has
fallen ill. Am carrying on for him at the
moment.

Tuesday, July 27, 1915. Tenedos. Went to
the trenches at Tenedos. They face the enemy.
That is the most military thing about them. Thomp-
son went out to see the inhabitants. I was going
with him, but felt worse and went to rest. The
Turks here are in a very bad way. We do not
allow them to work. It's inevitable. They mayn't
fish or work at the aerodrome.

Wednesday, July 28, 1915. Tenedos. Interpreted
for the Governor of Tenedos, who, like Jupiter,
rules with might, in the afternoon. In the evening
I saw the Mufti, who had a list of starving, widows
and indigent. . . . Last night the Cretan soldiers

11

146 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

started ragging the Turks and singing, till I stopped
them. They were quite good.

Still ill, but better. Had a beautiful walk in
the evening, and a long talk with the Greek refu-
gees working in the vines by the edge of the sea.
The old patriarch addressed me all the time as
"chorbaji" — that is. Possessor of the Soup, the
Headman of the village.

Thursday, July 29, 1915. Tenedos. Yesterday
I rode over to the French aerodrome, coming late
for luncheon, but had coffee with about twenty
French officers, all very jolly. Promised to let me
fly over the Dardanelles. I went on to the Cretans
in a pinewood. Their officer, a Frenchman, very
keen on a show in Asia Minor. . . . The elder
Vassilaki has been arrested. His brother saw him
go by in a trawler. Am going to Mytilene, then
return after three days, and leave here on Tuesday
for Anzac. No news of anything happening. Tene-
dos is a beautiful town in its way, surrounded by
windmills, vcith Mount Elias in the background.
Its streets are narrow, picturesque and hung with
vines that make them cool and shady. At the end
of the town there is a very fine old Venetian fortress,
but its magnificence is outside ; inside it is furnished
with round stone cannon-balls, ammunition for
catapults. In the last war the Greeks took the
island, but one day a Turkish destroyer popped
her nose in. All the Greeks fled, and the Mufti
and the Moslems went and pulled the Greek flag
down. Then in came a Greek destroyer, and the
Turkish one departed. The Mufti and the Turks
were taken off to Mudros, where he and they were
beaten. He narrowly missed being killed. . . .

Friday, July 30, 1916. Tenedos. Slept very

TENEDOS U1

badly again. Had a letter from the O.C. Poor
Onslow killed, lying on his bed by hia dugout.
A good fellow and a fine soldier. Aden nearly
captured. I prophesied its capture in Egypt. I
shall be recalled before anything happens.

The radiant air of Tenedos gave health as it did
in Homeric times, and I left with the desire that
others should have the same chance as myself of
using that beautiful island as a hospital ; but all
the pictures there were not bright. Under the
windmills above the shining sea there were the
motionless, dark-clad, desolate Moslem women,
sitting without food or shelter. Their case, it is
true, was no harder than that of the thousands of
Greek refugees who had been driven from their
homes, but these at any rate were living amongst
kindred, while the unfortunate Moslems were with-
out help or sympathy, except that which came
from their enemies, the British.

Diary. Friday, July 30, 1915. Mytikne. I left
by the Greek boat yesterday. On the boat I met
a man who might be useful as an interpreter,
Anibal Miscu, Entrepreneur de Travaux Publiques,
black as my hat, but talks English, French, German,
ItaUan, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Bulgar,
Russian and something else. The boat was stopped
by our trawler. No. , and searched for contra-
band of war. The Greeks were furious. I landed
at l^ytUene, not having slept much and feeling bad.
Avani said they had tried to bribe him to allow
some raisins through, and kicked up the devil of
a row. He seemed to think that the raisins were
dynamite. He was left guarding the raisins, all
night, I believe, with his revolver.

148 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

I was given a warm welcome by Compton
Mackenzie in Mytilene. He, fortunately for me,
had been sent there by G.H.Q. I found several
old friends — Heathcote-Smith, the Consul, whose
work it would be impertinent for me to praise,
and Hadkinson, whom I had last seen at my own
house in England, where he was staying with me
when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been
murdered, Hadkinson had passed most of his Hfe
on his property in Macedonia. Of the Eastern
and Southern languages he talked Greek, Itahan,
Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian, His
voice was as delightful as his knowledge of Balkan
ballads was wide, and his friends made him sing
the endless songs of the mountaiueers. His per-
sonahty had carried him through experiences that
would have been disastrous to most men ; battles
decisive in Europeans history had raged in front
of his doors, while his house had remained un-
touched ; brigands of most of the Balkan races
had crossed his farm, rarely driving off his stock,
and most of the local peasantry in their misfortunes
had come to him for help, for advice, doctoring
or intercession. Until the European war had
crashed upon the world, Hadkinson had been a
good example of the fact that minorities, even
when they are a minority of one, do not always
suffer.

The people of Mytilene, at that time, were very
pro-English, though the officials were of the faction
of King Constantine. The desire I frequently
heard expressed was that Great Britain should
take over M3i;ilene, as she did the Ionian Islands,
and that when MytUene had been put in order
it should be restored to Greece.

MYTILENE 149

Diary. Friday, July 30, 1916. Mytilene,

and Hadkinson have gone out with a motor-boat
and a machine-gun. The Vassilakis, or some of
them, have been deported, VassUaki to Imbros
and the beautiful sisters to Mudros. . . . It's a
blazing, burning day.

Saturday, July 31, 1915. Mytilene. A gaming-
house. Moved from my first hotel to a larger and
more disreputable one. Lunched with Hadkinson
and Compton Mackenzie.^ ... At Thasos the
Greeks have arrested our agents under the orders
of Gunar's. Have worked, and am feeling better.

Later. The three Miss Vassilakis have not gone
to Mudros. They turned up this morning, and I
was left to deal with them. Not as beautiful,
except one, as I had been led to believe. They
got Avani out of the room and wept and wept.
I told them their brother would be all right. . . .
They wanted to know who prevented them leaving.
I said it was the Admiral. That good man is far
away.

Sunday, August 1, 1915. Mytilene. Avani went
off with the three Miss Vassilakis, in hysterics,
last night. They were very angry with us. It
seems probable that we shall have a landing on the
mainland here to divert attention from the Peninsula.
Sir Ian Hamilton is coming down to have a look.
A good deal of friction over the blockade. The
present system causes much inconvenience to all
concerned.

They were enchanting days of golden light or
starlit darkness, while one drank health almost
in the concrete from the hot pine-scented air and
' The novelist.

160 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

the famous wine of Mytilene. The conditions of
others was unfortunately less happy. There were
some 80,000 Greek refugees from the mainland, for
whom the Greek Government had done practically
nothing, while the patriotic Greek communities of
England and America had not had the opportunity
of reKeving their necessities. We all did what we
could to help these people.

There was another question allied to this to be
considered : whether a Greek Expeditionary Force,
largely composed of these refugees, should be sent
into Asia Minor. The danger of such a campaign
to the native Greeks was obvious ; mainly for this
reason it was not undertaken. But while no
expedition occurred, there was much talk about
one. The fact that Sir Ian Hamilton had come
was widely known. It was said that great pre-
parations were being made, and these rumours
probably troubled the Turks and kept troops of
theirs in a non-combatant area.

Diary. Sunday, August 1, 1915. MytiUne.
Lunched with Mavromati Bey. He was very heroic,
saying he preferred to die rather than to live under
the German yoke, but there were no signs of a
funeral at luncheon, which was dehcious.

Diued with Hadkinson, and was taken ill, but
got all right and went ofE with him on the motor-
boat Omala after dinner. H. said that for a long
time he had felt that I was coming, and had
ordered a lamb for me to be executed the follow-
ing day; told the cook, too, to get some special
herbs.

The object of our journey was to find a wonder-
ful woman, lithe as a leopard and strong as a

OMALA 151

horse, and put her somewhere near AivaU to gain
information.

Monday, July 2, 1915. " Omala." Off Moshonisi.
At dawn this- morning we came to Moskonisi,
luminous in the sea. A decrepit shepherd led a
flock of sheep along the beach. His name is Pana-
yotis and he has a Homeric past ; he killed two
Turkish guards who courted a beautiful sister-in-
law before marriage. Then he killed two others
for a pusillanimous brother-in-law after marriage,
and he has also sent two other Turks to their rest,
though H. does not know the reason for their death.
Hadkinson had collected a large band of Palikaris,
but the motor-boat only held a few, the cream of
them. He had English names for most of them —
Little John, Robin Hood, etc. They were tall
men, with very quick, clever eyes and lithe move-
ments, picturesquely dressed. One of them had a
cross ghttering in his kalpak, and A. M. (for Asia
Minor) on both sides of the cross. He said to me,
pointing to AivaU : " There is my country ; we are
an orphan people. For 150 years we have shed our
blood and given our best to Greece. Now in her
hour of triumph and in our day of wretchedness
she denies us help. May she ever be less ! " An-
other Greek had been to Mecca as a soldier and
stayed there and in the Yemen for some years.
The Captain was a quiet man, but apparently
very excitable. They were delighted with their
army rifles. The woman, Angehko Andriotis, did
not turn up at Gymno, so we went on to Moskonisi,
the men often playing on a plaintive flute, and
sometimes singing low together. At breakfast, soon
after dawn, we had a sort of orchestra.
We arrived opposite to Aivali. The Turks have

152 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

sunk three mauna. . . . Hadkinson saw one of
their submarines.

The situation at Aivali is curious. It lies at
the head of a bay. Above it there are hills, not
high hiUs, but high enough, the men said who were
with us, to prevent its being bombarded by the
Turks. They looked at it with longing eyes. Their
famiHes were there. They kept on cursing the
" black dogs " and sajdng they would eat them.
There were 35,000 people in Aivah, now only
25,000; 10,000 have left lately. The sword of
Damocles hangs over the rest of them, for they
might be sent off into the interior at any moment.
We went on to the channel between Moskonisi
and Pyrgos. There we found the child of the
woman, who was sent with a note to her. Men
were moving in the olives and the scrub some
distance off, whom the Greeks said were their own
compatriots.

The boy, who was thirteen, took the letter and
put it under his saddle. He went off calmly to
get past the Turks, without any air of adventure
about him. The others reahzed the stage on which
they were acting, and swaggered finely. I got
off on Pyrgos with Hadkinson, and went to a small,
rough chapel, where they were bringing the eikons
back in triumph.

The beauty of it aU was beyond words. I bathed
on a silver sand in transparent water between the
two islands. Moskonisi, by the way, doesn't mean
the Island of Perfume, but takes its name from a
great brigand who practically held the island against
the Turks about thirty years ago.

After a time the boy returned with a letter from
his mother, and a peasant with binoculars. He

MYTILENE 153

and the peasant both said that they had seen a
great oil-pool in Aivah Bay. We thought that
this must be from a submarine, and dashed round
there at fuU speed, but found nothing. Then we
decided to come home. We picked up some of the
men we had dropped en route ; and they brought
us presents of gran Turco, basiUca and sweet-
scented pinks. Then they played their flutes as
the sun set, and Hadkinson sang Greek, Bulgarian
and Turkish songs, singing the "Imam's Call"
beautifully and, to the horror of his Greek
followers, reverently.

We might have bagged the twenty-five Turks,
or whatever number there were, quite easily, but
H. thought this would have produced reprisals. He
was probably right.

Tuesday, August 3, 1915. Mytilene. We got
back last night after dinner and heard that Sir
Ian Hamilton, George Lloyd and George Brodrick
had been here. . . . One of the poor WhittaU boys
very badly woimded. They were a fine pair.

August 4, 1915. Mytilene. Yesterday we heard
that the Turks had sent the town-crier to the
equivalent of the capital of Moskonisi to say that
any Greek going beyond a certain line would be
put to death. Miss Vassilaki turned up, and said
that she and her sister would come with me to
Tenedos. I said they couldn't.

We dined with General HiU and his StafiE and
slept on the Ganopus. . . . Mackenzie no better. . . .
A good deal of friction in Tenedos. Athanasius
Vassilaki has escaped, and every one is annoyed.
Some men have been arrested for signaUing.

Thursday, August 5, 1915. Tenedos. Most of the
officers sick. I was asked to stay on at Tenedos,

154 MONS, ANZAC, AND KtJT

but felt I must get back at once. Christo says
that it's dull here, and Kaba Tepe is better than
this house. Turkish guns have been firing at our
trawlers. A couple of men wounded. Examined
a man just escaped from Constantinople. Con-
stantinople is quite cheery : theatres, carriages,
boats, etc. The Germans say we can't hold out
on the Peninsula when the bsfti weather comes.
Then I examined a Lebanon French soldier who
had arrested a child and an old man for sig-
nalling. . . .

Here there are some pages of my diary missing,
but the events that occurred are still vividly in
my mind.

In company with other officers I went first to
Imbros, hearing the thunder of the guns from
Helles. In passionate haste we tried every means
to get on to the Peninsula for the great battle. I
left Christo to follow with my kit, if he could, with
the future doubtful before him, and no certainty,
except that of being arrested many times.

In the harbour at Imbros on that night there was
a heavy sea, and in a small, dancing boat we quested
through the darkness for any ship sailing to Anzac.
One was found at last that was on the point of
sailing, and off we went.

The instructions of my friend Ian Smith were
to get to Suvla, and luck favoured him, for at dawn
we lay off Suvla, and a trawler took him ashore.

Along the heights and down to the sea-shore
the battle growled and raged, and it was difficult
to know what was the mist of the morning or battle
smoke. I got off at Anzac, which was calm, realizing
that I had missed the first attack.

THE SECOND LANDING 155

Diary. Saturday, August 7, 1915. Kaha Tebe.
I went out to Headquarters, which are now beyond
Colonel Bauchop's old Headquarters. He, poor
fellow, had just been hit and was said to be dying.
Dix « again wounded in the leg and Cator killed
when he had just been promoted. I saw the General ;
on the way out I met 300 Turkish prisoners and
was ordered to return and embark them. We
came to the pier on the beach, then three shells
fell on and beside it ; both S. B. and I thought we
were going to have a very bad time, packed like
sardines, with panicky prisoners. Embarking them
took time ; we were all very snappy, but we got
them off. I was glad to find S. B. and Woods.
All the dugouts here are desolate. I saw General
Birdwood, who was very sad about Onslow.' He
talked of the water difficulties. He was cheerful,
as usual, and said he thought we should know which
way things were going by 5 o'clock. S. was less
cheerful.

I went back to Headquarters, a weary trudge
of two hot, steaming miles, past masses of wounded.
The saps were constantly blocked. Then back to
Anzac for a few hours' sleep, tiU I can get my kit.

Sunday, August 8, 1915. Near Anafarta. Slept
badly last night at Anzac. The place was very
desolate with every one away. I got up before a
clear dawn and went out to the observation post,
where I found General Godley and General Shaw.
Our assault began. We saw our men in the growing
light attack the Turks. It was a cruel and beautiful
sight, for it was like a fight in fairyland ; they went

' Naval beachmaster.

• His A.D.C., a Captain in the Indian Lanoers, who had been
killed.

156 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

forward in parties through the beautifiil light, with
the clouds crimsoning over them. Sometimes a tiny,
gallant figure would be in front, then a puff would
come and they would be lying still. We got to
within about forty yards of the Turks; later we
lost ground. Meanwhile, men were streaming up,
through awful heat. There were Irish troops
cursing the Kaiser. At the observation post we
were being badly shelled. The beauty of the place
was extraordinary, and made it better than the
baldness of Anzac, but we were on an impropitious
hiUside, and beyond there were mules and men,
clustered thickly.

Then I was sent back to Kaba Tepe, where I
found a lot of wounded prisoners, who had not been
attended to. I woke a doctor who had not slept
for ages. He talked almost deliriously, but came
along and worked Uke a real good man. I saw
General House, V.C, and suggested attaching one
doctor to the prisoners, so that we should not get
contagious diseases.

Returned to Bauchop's Post and examined a
couple of Germans from the Ooehen. Got a good
deal of information. Then I was telephoned for
to interrogate a wounded Greek, who had, however,
got lost. I went back outside the hospital, where
there were many wounded lying. I stumbled upon
poor A. C. (a schoolfellow), who had been wounded
about 3 a.m. the day before, and had lain in the
sun on the sand aU the previous day. He recognized
me, and asked me to help him, but was light-headed.
There were fifty-six others with him ; M. and I
counted. It was awful having to pass them. A lot
of the men called out : " We are being murdered."
The smells were fearful. ... I went down a sap

SUVLA 157

to the north to find the Greek. Fierce shellhag
began. The sap was knocked down in front and
behind.

I came to a field hospital, situated where the
troops were going through. There no one knew
where Taylor's Hollow, the place where the Greek
was supposed to be, was. While I was there sheUing
was bad. Several of the wounded hit again. One
man was knocked in on the top of me, bleeding
all over. I returned to meet Thorns, who said he
knew the way. We ran the gauntlet. . . .

I had a curious, beautiful walk, looking for the
wounded Greek, going to nineteen hospitals. Many
wounded everywhere. First I saw one of our
fellows who had met ten Turks and had ten bayonet
wounds. He was extremely cheerful. Then a
couple of Turks in the shadow of some pines, one
dying and groaning, really unconscious. I offered
the other water from my bottle, but he refused
because of his companion, using Philip Sidney's
words in Turkish.

Men were being hit everywhere. After going
by fields and groves and lanes I came back to where
the wounded were lying in hundreds, in the sap
going to the sea, near Bauchop's Fountain. There
a man called to me in French. He was the Greek I
was looking for, badly wounded. He talked a great
deal. Said 200,000 reinforcements were expected
from GalMpoli. No gas would be used here. . . .

Monday, August 9, 1915. No. 3 Outpost. Slept
rmcomfortably on the ground. Went before the
dawn to observation post ; returned to examine
prisoners. Had an unsuccessful expedition with
Hastings to find some guns which he said had
been lost between the lines*

158 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Bullets came streaming down our valley, and we
put up a small wall, of sacks, 3 feet high, behind
which we slept. I was sitting at breakfast this
morning listening to Colonel Manders ■ talking,
when suddenly I saw Charlie B. put his hand to

his own head and say : "By G , he's killed ! "

Manders fell back dead, with~ a bullet through his
temple. He was a very good fellow.

Sir Ian Hamilton came ashore. I saw him for
a moment. Then to Kaba Tepe ; going and coming
one passes a line of bodies, some dreadful, being
carried for burial. Many still lying out. The
last wounded have been more pitiful than anything
I have seen. Cazalet is badly wounded; I hope
he will recover ; he is a good boy. Colonel Malone
was killed last night and Jacky Hughes wounded.
Lots of shelling.

Coming back I had to go outside the crowded sap,
and got sniped. Thoms and I had a very Uvely
time of it.

Came back for Manders' funeral. I was very
fond of him. General Godley read a few sentences
with the help of my electric torch, which failed.
Four others were buried with him. Later I saw
a great shell strike the grave. A cemetery, or rather
lots, growing up round us. There are dead buried
or half buried in every gully.

Tuesday, August 10, 1915. No. 3 Outpost.
Christo arrived with my kit and some grapes last
night. While we were eating these, two men, one
of whom was our cook, were hit, and he being the
second cook, it was decided to change our quarters,
as a lot of bullets streamed down the gully and we
had been losing heavily. I was called up in the
» A.D.M S., New Zealand Division.

NO. 3 OUTPOST 169

night to see about some wounded. The General
had said they had better go by boat, because of
the difficulty of the saps, but there were no boats,
and Manders' death had caused ccmfusion at the
hospital. The doctor on the beach said he could
not keep the wounded there any longer, because
of the rifle fire. I woke Charhe B. We got
200 men from the Canterbury reinforcements.
They had been fighting without sleep since Sunday
morning, but evacuated about 300 wounded to
below Walker's Ridge. There were no complaints.
The Turks still had to be left. They called to me
at night and at dawn. I gave them drinks, and later,
after sunrise, shifted them into the shade, which
made them cheerful. The General had not slept
for three nights. The day went badly for us.
We lost Chunuk Bair, and without it we cannot
win the battle. The Turks have fought very
finely, and aU praise their courage. It was wonderful
to see them charging down the hiU, through the
storm of shrapnel, under the white ghost wreaths
of smoke. Our own men were splendid. The N.Z.
Infantry Brigade must have ceased to exist.
Meanwhile the condition of the wounded is inde-
scribable. They he in the sand in rows upon rows,
their faces caked with sand and bipod; one murmur
for water ; no shelter from the sun ; many of them
in saps, with men passing all the time scattering
more dust on them. There is hardly any possibiUty
of transporting them. The fire zones are desperate,
and the saps are blocked with ammunition transport
and mules, also whinnying for water, carrying
food, etc. Some unwounded men almost mad
from thirst, cursing.
We all did what we could, but amongst so many

160 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

it was almost impossible. . . . The wounded Turks
still here. I kept them alive with water. More
prisoners in, report another 15,000 men at Bulair
and a new Division, the 7th, coming against us here.
I saw General Cooper,' wounded, in the afternoon,
and got him water. His Staff had aU been killed
or wounded. . . .

If the Turks continue to hold Chunuk Bair and
get up their big guns there, we are, as a force, far
worse off than at Anzac. What has happened is
roughly this : we have emerged from a position
which was unsatisfactory but certain, into one
that is uncertain but partly satisfactory. If the
Turks have the time to dig themselves in, then we
are worse off than before, because we shall again
be held up, with the winter to face, and time running
hard against us, with an extended front. The Turks
will stiQ have land communications, while we shall
only have sea communications, and though we
ourselves shall be possibly better off, because we
shall now have a harbour, the Turks some time
wiU almost certaioly be able to break through,
though possibly not able to keep what they take.
But the men at Helles wiU not be freed as our
move proposed to free them.

I thought one of the wounded Turks had cholera
to-day. There is very little water, and we have
to give them water out of our own bottles. We
have a terrible view here : lines of woimded
creeping up from the hospital to the cemetery
hke a tide, and the cemetery is going like a
hve thing to meet the wounded. Between us
and the sea is about 150 yards ; this space is
now empty of men because of the sniping.
' Irish Guards, Commanding 29th Irish Brigade.

SUVLA 161

There are a number of dead mules on it, which
smell horribly but cannot be moved. A curious
exhibition of sniping took place just below us this
evening, about 50 yards away. Two men were
on the open space when a sniper started to shoot
at them. They popped into a dry weU that prac-
tically hid them, but he got his bullets all round
them — ^in front and behind and on the sides. They
weren't hit. The camp watched, laughing.

Thursday, August 12, 1915. No. 3 Outpost. At
4.30 in the morning I got up and walked with the
General. We went up to Rhododendron Ridge to
have a look at the Turks. It is a steep, beauti-
ful walk, and a glorious view — ^trees everywhere
and cliffs. We are fastening the cliffs up, and
camouflaging the trenches.

I took Nikolas the miUer round the observation
post in the morning. A new Division is supposed
to be against us, the 8th. In the afternoon walked
into Anzac to get a drink of water as have had
fever and a cruel thirst. The dugouts smell, and
washing's difficult. Anglesey gave me excellent
water.

Friday, August 13, 1915. No. 3 Outpost. No-
thing doing. Bullets singing about, but nobody
getting hit. The heat's ferocious, and everybody's
feeling iU. Macaulay's wounded.

Worked yesterday morning, also started on new
dugout. In the afternoon went with Turkish papers
to Anzac. I saw C. He said that this beach for
cruelty had beaten the Crimea. . . . Savage feeling
with the R.A.M.C. . . .

Streams of mules took water out in the evening
as the sun set. I met several men with sunstroke
coming in. I saw Greorge Hutton, Royal Welsh

12

162 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Fusiliers, who has become a Colonel. He had a
hand-to-hand bayonet tussle with a Turk, in the
last jfight. Another man came up, and killed the
Turk with his bayonet. Then, he said^ the man,
instead of pulling his bayonet out, dashed to
another man and asked him for his bayonet,
saying : "I have left mine in the Turk."

The battle-cries, by the way, were for the Turks
the sonorous, deep- voiced " Allah, Allah," and
"Voor" ("God, God," "Strike"); while the New
Zealanders used often to shout: "Eggs is cooked."
This apparently irrelevant, unwarhke slogan had
its origin in Egypt. There, on field days in the
desert, when the men halted to rest, Egyptians
would appear magically with primitive kitchens
and the cry of " Eggs is cooked ! "

Diary. Monday, August 16, 1915. No. 3
Outpost. Christo will spit on my razor-strop ;
otherwise he is a good servant. . . . Bathed with
Charhe B. yesterday afternoon. ... I don't think
we want Roumania in. If she has no ammunition
and takes a very bad knock from Germany, it would
give Germany a very strong strategic position.
The Turks who have come in do not really seem
very disheartened.

At about this time the Expeditionary Force
entered upon a new phase. The agony of the struggle
had passed its crisis. Both sides sat down grimly,
to wait for the winter. In many ways our position
had distinctly improved. There was more room,
and space banished the sense of imprisonment that
had afflicted us. The country was not as battle-
scarred as Anzac, and walking over the heights at
sunset was a feast of loveliness.

NO. 3 OUTPOST 163

We moved our Headquarters again, and I went
up to a large dugout in what had been a Turkish
fort. The troops quartered in this fort were an
Indian Field Battery and sixty-three new Zealanders,
all that was left of their battalion. These men
had been in the first landing. They had, every
one of them, had dysentery or fever, and the
great majority were stiU sick and oVer-ripe for
hospital.

As time went on, and illness increased, one often
heard men and officers say : " If we can't hold
the trenches with sound men, we have got to hold
them with sick men." When all was quiet, the sick-
list grew daily. But when the men knew that there
was to be an attack, they fought their sickness,
to fight the Turk, and the stream to the hospitals
shrank.

I admired nothing in the war more than the
spirit of these sixty-three New Zealanders, who
were soon to go to their last fight. When the day's
work was over, and the sunset swept the sea, we
used to lean upon the parapet and look up to where
Chunuk Bair flamed, and talk. The great distance
from their own country created an atmosphere
of lonehness. This lonehness was emphasized by
the fact that the New Zealanders rarely received
the same recognition as the Australians in the Press,
and many of their gallant deeds went unrecorded
or were attributed to their greater neighbours.
But they had a silent pride that put these things
into proper perspective. The spirit of these men
was unconquered and unconquerable. At night,
when the great moon of the Dardanelles soared and
all was quiet except the occasional whine of a
bullet overhead, the voices of the tired men con-

164 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

tinually argued the merits of the Expedition, and
there was always one end to these discussions :

" Well, it may aU be a mistake, but in a war

of this size you will have mistakes of this size, and

it doesn't matter a to us whether we are for it

here or in France, for we came out to do one job,
and it's nothing to us whether we finish in one
place or another." The Turks were not the only
fatalists in those days.

We were now weU supplied with water, but food
of the right kind was a difficulty. It was very
hard to obtain suppUes for sick men, and here,
as always, we met with the greatest kindness from
the Navy.

Horlick's Malted Milk and fruit from the Islands
did us more good than anything else. Relations
of mine in Egypt sent me an enormous quantity
of the first, which I was able to distribute to the
garrison of the fort. Later, when I was invaUded,
I bequeathed the massive remnants to a friend
who had just landed. Greedily he opened my
stores, hoping for the good things of the world —
tongues, potted ham and whisky — only to find a
wilderness of Horlick's Malted Milk.

Our position had at last been appreciated at
home, and we were no longer irritated, as in the
early days, by the frivoUty and fatuousness of
London. Upon one occasion, shortly after the
first landing, one of the illustrated papers had a
magnificent picture entitled, if I remember right,
" The Charge that Won Constantinople." The pic-
ture was of a cavalry charge, led quite obviously
by General Godley — and those were the days when
we were living on the edge of a cliff, where only
centipedes could, and did, charge, and when we

NO. 2 OUTPOST 165

were provided vrith some mules and my six donkeys
for all our transport.

There was a remarkable contrast between our
war against the Germans and the Turks. In France
the British soldier started fighting good-naturedly,
and it took considerable time to work him up to
a pitch of hatred; at Anzae the troops from the
Dominions began their campaign with feehngs of
contempt and hatred, which gradually turned to
respect for the Moslems. At the beginning the
great majority of our men had naturally no know-
ledge of the enemy they were fighting. Once,
looking down from a gun emplacement, I saw a
number of Turks walking about, and asked why
they had not been shot at. "Well," said one
man, " it seems hard on them, poor chaps. They
aren't doing any harm." Then up came another :
" Those Turks," he said, " they walk about as if
this place belongs to them." I suggested that it
was their native land. " Well," he said, " I never
thought of that."

Diary. Monday, August 16, 1915. No. 2 Outpost.
It's curious the way the men speak of the Turks
here. They stiU can't be made to wear gas helmets,
because they say the Turks are clean fighters and
won't use gas. ...

It's good to be high up in this observation post,
above the smells, with a magnificent view of hill
and valley. We shoot from here pretty often
at the Turkish guns. Last night the Dardanelles
droned on for hours. This morning the machine-
guns on both sides were going like dentists' drills.
To-day it's absolutely still, with only the whirr
of aeroplanes overhead.

166 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Bartlett turned up to-night. He had not much
hope. . . . Poor Bauchop is dead. News came to-
night. ... A gallant man.

On Wednesday, August 18th, I was sent to
G.H.Q. at Imbros, and heard a full account of
the tragic battle down at Helles, and the condition
of the wounded at Mudros.

When men have gone to the limits of human
endurence, when blood has been spilled like water,
and the result is stiU unachieved, bitter and
indiscriminate recrimination and criticism inevit-
ably foUow. But Anzac had one great advantage.
Our leaders had the confidence of their men. The
troops were able to see General Birdwood and General
Godley every day in the front trenches with them-
selves, walking about under fire as if they had been
on a lawn in England, and the men knew that
their own lives were never uselessly sacrificed.

The work of many of the doctors on the Peninsula
was beyond all praise, but there was black rage
against the chiefs of the R.A.M.C. at Imbros and
in Egypt. The anger would have been still greater
if their attitude of complacent self-sufficiency had
been known.

Diary. Thursday, August 19, 1915. No. 3 Out-
post. Returned to the Peninsula with Bettinson
and Commander Patch and Phillips, the navigator.
When we had come up to the fort I told them
not to show their heads at the observation post,
as the fort did not belong to me, and I did not
want to become unpopular. I got Perry, Captain
of the fort, and he sat them down on the parapet,
showing them the lines of our trenches. While
we talked, a sniper shot at Patch, just missing

NO. 2 OUTPOST 167

him, and hitting the parapet beside him. They
were very pleased, though the others said I had
paid a man to shoot in order to give them fun.
Perry said in a friendly way : " That's a good
sniper ; he's thirteen hundred yards off, so it was
a pretty decent shot." Then he talked to them,
and they felt what any one must feel talking to these
men. They gave us a lot of things, and are sending
all sorts of things to-morrow for the men here.

Friday, August 20, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. Last
night was the first cold night. This morning I
went out with the General, who was like a bull-dog
and a cyclone. We met Birdwood, who was there
to see the last Austrahans arrive, 17th and 18th
Brigades, in Reserve Gully. They looked a splendid
lot, and it did one's heart good to see them. Some
more officers from the Bacchante turned up with
stores, and special cocoa for me. I was just going off
to find Perry when I met him. He is off out ;
there is a fight to-morrow. I gave him the cocoa.
He was glad to have it. . . . The men are all tired
out with heat and dysentery and digging and fight-
ing. The General and I went up to SazU Beit Deri.
I didn't think it over-safe for him.

Saturday, August 21, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. Work
in the morning. Was to have gone with the General
in the afternoon, but prisoners came in to be ex-
amined. They said : " Gurse the Germans ! We
can't go on. There are no more men left." One
of them was killed by their own fire after I left.
G. L. came to luncheon. Charlie B., he and I
started off together, I feeling pretty bad. It was
very hot. We went at a great pace over two
or three ridges and across valleys, our guns
thundering about us. Finally, I felt so bad I let

168 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

them go on, and came back. . . . The battle
developed and the shooting was fierce and general.
While I hunted for General Monash's Headquarters
I met Colonel A. J,, who was rather worried. We
had a close shave. ... I left him, and had an odd
adventure. . . . Went home alone through deafening
noise, aU the valleys under fire. . . . Got at last
into a shallow nuUah that led into a regular gully,
and so home.

That day I saw an unforgettable sight. The
dismounted Yeomanry attacked the Turks across
the salt lakes of Suvla. Shrapnel burst over
them continuously ; above their heads there was
a sea of smoke. Away to the north by Chocolate
HiU fires broke out on the plain. The Yeomanry
never faltered. On they came through the haze
of smoke in two formations, columns and extended.
Sometimes they broke into a run, but they always
came on. It is difficult to describe the feelings
of pride and sorrow with which we watched this
advance, in which so many of our friends and
relations were playing their part.

Diary. August 2\st. Charlie B. and G. L. came
back all right. . . . The Turks had come over
in three waves down Chunuk Bair. The first two
were destroyed by naval fire ; the third got home
into our trenches. Charlie B. was fuU of admiration
for one old fellow whom he had seen holding up
his finger and lecturing to the men when they
hung back.

Hutton is wounded again.

Sunday, August 22, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. Last
night, or this morning at 1 o'clock, I was called
up. They said there were 150 Turks in one place

NO. 2 OUTPOST 169

and others elsewhere, anxious to surrender. 1
took the miller, Zachariades and Kyriakidis out
to Headquarters. Sent back Kyriakidis and the
miller, as there was nothing doing and I wanted
to keep Kyriakidis. Went on with Zachariades
and guides sent by Poles to Colonel Agnew to his
H.Q. There we lay on the ground, very cold.
They said the Turks had wished to surrender,
but there had been no interpreter, and they had
been fired on. The Turks were then attacking
heavily. Eastwood telephoned that they had four-
teen prisoners. I went back to see if they could
give any news about our immediate front.

Every one worried. The Battahon of Austra-
lians had gone wrong. Nobody knew where they
were. I sent my escort to try and find them.
The Hampshires, who ought to have arrived, had
not come. . . . They came along gradually.

We attacked at about four in the morning. The
Turkish fire tarried a Httle, then got furious. We
went towards Monash, and met the Hampshires, very
tired and wa3rwom. Bullets sang very viciously,
and burst into flame on the rocks. There was
a thunder of rifle fire and echoes in the gullies,
men dropping now and then. Lower down the
gully I found the Hampshires running like mad
upwards to the firing line ; beyond this a mixed
crowd of men without an officer. . . . My guide,
wild as a hawk, took us up a ridge. I fell over a
dead man in the darkness and hurt my ankle.
We had to wait. There seemed a sort of froth
of dust on the other side of the ridge, from the
rifle fire, and I told the escort to take us down and
round the ridge across the valley. He admitted
afterwards we had no chance of crossing the other

170 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

way. In the valley the bullets sang. We came
to the half-nullah where I had taken such unsatis-
factory cover in the afternoon. There we waited
a bit, and then ran across the hundred yards to
the next gully. Zachariades and the escort grazed.
Found the prisoners ; the other Zachariades examined
them. . . . Spent bullets falling about, but the
Greeks never winked. A surrendered Armenian
could only tell us that the Turks were very weak
before us. The rifle fire died away in the end,
and we walked back at dawn, getting here by
sunrise. Then examined more prisoners till about
11, and slept till 1.

The position is still indefinite. It's on the same
old lines, on the hiUs we are the eyebrows and the
Turks are the forehead.

Monday, August 23, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. Perry
is wounded, but not badly, I hope, in the arm.
There is hardly any one in the fort. The interpreter
question becoming very difficult. They are all
going sick. Had a quiet evening last night, and
read on the parapet. It will be very difficult to
keep these old troops here during the winter. The
AustraUans and New Zealanders who have been
here a long time are weak, and wiU all get pneumonia.
There was a great wind blowing and the sound
of heavy firing. I went to Anzac to-day, and found
men bombing fish. They got about twenty from
one bomb, beautiful fish, half-pounders.

Tuesday, August 24rth. No. 2 Outpost. General
Shaw has gone sick to England ; General Maude
has taken his place. He commands the 13th,
He and Harter dined here last night. Longford
was kiUed, IVIilbanke said to be killed or wounded,
and the Hertfordshires have sufiered.

NO. 2 OUTPOST 171

This morning we talked about the winter seriously
and of preparations to be made. I am for a hill-
side. The plain is a marsh and the valley a water-
course. We ought to have fuel, caves for drying
clothes, cooking, etc., and mostly this hill is made
of dust and sand, A great mail came in last night,
but the machine-guns got on to the men as they
passed by the beach in the moonUght, killed some
and wounded five men. So there are the mails Ijdng
now, with the machine-guns playing round them. . . .

I advised Lawless yesterday at Anzac to move
out from the beach, lest the sea should rise and
take him like a winkle from his shell.

Saw D. to-day. He has a curious story to tell
of the other night, when I was telephoned for. He
said I was called three hours too late. A lot of
Turks had come out of their trenches, some unarmed
and some armed and some with bombs. He had
gone out and pointed his revolver at one of them,
who shouldered arms and stood to attention. Some
of the Turks came right up, and the New Zealanders
said : " Come in here, Turkey," and began puUing
them into the front trench, D, had feared that the
Turks, who were about 200, might rush the trench,
and had waved them back and finally fired his
revolver and ordered our fellows to fire. It was
a pity there was no one there who could talk. Later
I saw Temperley, who said when we took Rhodo-
dendron Ridge there were 250 Turks on the top.
They piled their arms, cheered us and clapped
their hands.

To-night I went to Chaylak Dere with the General
and saw General Maude, and his Staff, who looked
pretty ill, also Claude Willoughby, who was anxious
to taJse the Knoll by the Apex.

172 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

There was a tremendous wind, and dust-storms
ever3rwhere. In the gulUes men were burying the
dead, not covering them sufficiently. My eyes
are stUl full of the dust and the glow of the camp-
fires on the hillside, and the moonlight. It is
an extraordinary country to look across — range
after range of high hills, precipice and gully, the
despair of Generals, the grave and oblivion of
soldiers.

Here the diary stops abruptly, and begins again
on Saturday, September 23rd.

No. 2 Outpost. After writing the above I had
a bad go of fever, and was put on to hospital ship.
Went aboard with General Birdwood, General
Godley and Tahu Rhodes. The Generals had come
to inspect the New Zealand hospital ship, which
was excellent. That night there was a very heavy
fire. I felt some friend of mine would be hit on
shore, and the next morning I found Charhe B.
on board, not badly wounded, hit in the side.

My friend Charlie B. had a temper, and was
often angry when others were calm, but in moments
of excitement he was calm to the point of phlegm.
When we were ofiE Mudros there was a great crash,
and a jarring of the ship from end to end. I went
into Charlie B.'s cabin and said : " Come along.
They say we're torpedoed. I'll help you." " Where
are my shppers ? " he asked. I said : " Curse
your slippers." " I will not be hurried by these
Germans," answered CharUe B., and he had the
right of it, for we had only had a minor collision
with another boat.

At Mudros the majority of the sick and wounded

THE MANITOJj 173

on our hospital ship were sent to England, but my
friend and I were luckily carried on to Egypt.

Diary. September 23rd. There was a remarkable
man on board the Manitou, Major K. He had
led 240 men into a Turkish trench ; three had re-
turned unwounded, but he got most of his wounded
back with eighteen men. The Adjutant was killed
on his back. He himseK had already been wounded
twice. Finally, he left the trench alone, and turned
round and faced the Turks at 200 yards. They
never fired at him, because, he said, " they admired
me." This officer found a D.S.O. waiting for him
in Egypt, and has since earned the V.C. in France,
for which he had been previously recommended
in South Africa. He and I returned to the Darda-
nelles together while he still had a long, unhealed
bayonet wound in his leg.

At Alexandria, fortunately for myself, I had
relations who were working there. I went to the
hospital of a friend. It was a great marble palace,
surrounded by lawns and fountains, and made,
at any rate, gorgeous within by the loves of the
Gods, painted in the colours of the Egyptian sunset
on the ceilings.

The EngHshwomen in Alexandria were working
like slaves for the wounded and the sick. They
did aU that was humanly possible to make up for
the improvidence and the callousness of the home
medical authorities. Thanks to their untiring and
unceasing work, day and night, these ladies saved
great numbers of British fives.

One day the Sultan came to inspect the hospital
where I was a patient. For reasons of toilette,
I should have preferred not to have been seen on

174 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

that occasion by His Highness, but the royal eye
fixed itself upon my kimono, and I was taken
aside for a few minutes' conversation.

Diary. {Subsequently written on the Peninsula.)
The Sultan said that he was very grieved about
the Conservative party, because of the CoaUtion,
I suppose, and also about Gallipoli. There I
cordially agreed.

I went up to Cairo for a few days, and found
the city and life there very changed. Shepheard's
was filled with the ghosts of those who had left
on and since April 12th.

In Egypt the danger of the Canal had passed,
but anxiety had not gone with it. There was
much doubt as to what the Senoussi would be
hkely to do and what consequences their action
would have. They had httle to gain by attacking,
but all knew that this would not necessarily deter
them. I was in Cairo when Fathy Pasha was
stabbed, and those in authority feared for the life
of the Sultan.

My friend Charlie B. and Major K. and I left
Alexandria in brilliant moonHght. Our boat could
do a bare twelve knots an hour. On the journey
rockets went up at night, S.O.S. signals were sent
us, all in vain : we were not to be seduced from our
steady spinster's course to Mudros. When we again
reached that place we found that our sister-ship,
the Ramadan, had been torpedoed.

Diary. {Written September 2Brd.) Gteneral Godley
was on the Lord Nelson. He had been sick for
some time, and had been taking three days off.
Roger Keyes desperately anxious to go up the
Dardanelles, come what may. He is the proper

NO. 2 OUTPOST 175

man to do it, but I think it's only singeing the
King of Spain's beard.

At Imbros the General, Charlie B. and I had a
stormy row ashore and a long walk to G.H.Q.,
where I found Willy Percy, who had been badly
wounded, now recovering. I saw Tyrrell, G. L.
and Dedez. The news had just come through of
Bulgaria's mobilization, but they did not know
against whom. I wonder if the Bulgars wUl attack
both the Serbs and the Turks. That would be
a topsy-turvy, Balkan thing to do, and might suit
their book. We ought to have had them in on
our side six months ago. From G.H.Q. we came
back to Anzac. The General has had my dugout
kept for me in the fort, where Christo and I now
live in soUtude, for all the rest are gone. I found
a lot of new uniforms and a magnificent cap. When
I put this on Christo cried violently: "No, no, no,
not until we ride into Constantinople as conquerors."

H.Q. are on the other side of the Turkish fort,
in a tiny valley across which you can throw a stone.
They have all the appearance of a more comfortable
Pompeii, and are scarcely more alive ; it is the
quietest town I have ever seen ; there lies in front
a ridge of vaUey, a dip of blue sea and a good deal
of the Anafarta plain. The first night on arriving
the cold was bitter, also next morning. Pleurisy
has already started. This morning the General
went up to the Apex and behind it. He was not
at aU pleased with the fire trenches. He nearly
drove C, the officer at that moment instructing
the AustraHans, mad, first by criticizing everything —
I thought pretty justly — and then by standing about
in view of the Turks and not worrying about shells
or bombs. I did my best to get him in. The

176 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Australians were all laughing at C. for his caution
and fussiness. Incidentally, one of the big mortar-
bombs fell in the trench as we arrived. Hastings
is Intelligence officer. It's luck to have got him.

Sunday, September 24, 1915. No. 2 Outpost.
A lovely morning. There was a bracing chill of
autumn and yet warm air and a smiling, southern
look across Anafarta plain, with great hills on
the other side, stately and formidable. Swallows
everywhere. Up till now it's been very silent.
I thought that the noise of war was past, but bullets
and shells have been whining and moaning over
us. At Anzac yesterday morning they had about
twenty men hit by one shell, and I saw a lot of
mules being dragged down to the sea as I went in.
We walked through the " Camel's Hump " Avith
Colonel Chauvel and Glasgow, on to No. 1 Outpost,
now deserted, with the beautiful trench made by
the six millionaires. I wonder what has happened
to them all.

Cazalet, of whom I had grown very fond, is dead,
Hornby's missing. I was very sad to hear that
ReyneU was killed on the night of the 27th, when
we left. A fine man in every way. His men
worshipped him. . . .

A lot of French transports were leaving Egypt as
we left, maybe for Asia. We shall do nothing more
here unless we have an overwhelming force. We
have never done anything except with a rush.
Directly we have touched a spade we have ceased
to advance, and have gone on adding bricks to
the wall which we first built and then beat our
heads against.

This morning we had a service in the valley,
which is extraordinarily beautiful. The flies are

2i\J. Z UUITOBT 177

awful, horrible, lethargic ; they stick to one Uke
gum. The men in the trenches are wearing the
head-dresses that Egypt has sent. I went with
the Greneral in the afternoon to Anzac. We walked
back as shelling began. We had one whizz round
us, and a man feU beside me on the beach. I
heard a tremendous smack, and thought he was
dead, and began to drag him in to cover, but he
was aU right, though a bullet had thumped him.

The flies and their habits deserve to hve in a
diary of their own. They were horrible in them-
selves, and made more horrible by our circumstances
and their habits. They Uved upon the dead,
between the trenches, and came bloated from their
meal to fasten on the hving. One day I killed
a fly on my leg that made a splash of blood that
half a crown would not have covered^.

Diary. Monday, September 27, 1915. No. 2
Outpost. Last night F. dined. He said that the
Indians could get back from Mudros if they gave
the hospital orderly ten rupees. The hospital orderly
would then certify them as having dysentery. Most
of them did not want to go back, some did. When
they were reluctant about fighting, he thought
it was due to the fact that it was Moslems they
were against.

This morning the General and I went round
Colonel Anthill's trenches. BiUy H. was there,
as independent and casual as ever. He came
out here as a sergeant and is now Acting Brigade
Major. I am giving him a shirt,

Billy H. was not the only member of his family
who was independent. His father, a weU-known
Australian doctor, on one occasion gave one of

13

178 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

the chiefs of the British R.A.M.C. his sincere
opinion about the treatment of the sick and
wounded. After a while the chief of the R.A.M.C.
said : " You don't seem to understand that it is I
who am responsible for these things." " Oh yes, I
do," said the Australian doctor, " but it's not you
I'm getting at ; it's the fool who put you there."

Diary. Thursday, September 28, 1915. No. 2
Outpost. Last night I dined with S. B. and H.
Woods. Walked back through a stiU, moonUt night,
with the sea and the air just breathing. Very
bright stars. We sent up flares. The General
was ill this morning, so did not go out. The Greek
interpreters have been called up for mobihzation.
This Greek mobihzation ought to do some good
about the German submarines. Last night at Anzac
they had iron needles dropped from aeroplanes.
I always objected to this. This morning over
our heads there was a Taube firing hard at something
with a machine-gun. It produces an unpleasant
impression, I suppose because it is unfamihar,
to hear the noise straight above one. Two bombs
were dropped — at least, I suppose they were. They
fell with a progressive whistle, but not close to
us ; another big one, however, an 8-inch one,
I believe, from the Dardanelles, fell with a tired
and sensuous thud just over the ridge.

Wednesday, September 29, 1915. No. 2 Outpost.
The General went out at nine this morning, P.
and I with him. He went to the Apex and round.
In the evening Kettle and I talked in the fort.

Friday, October 1, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. Yester-
day morning General Godley, General Birdwood,
de Crespigny and I went round the trenches. Apex,

NO. 2 OUTPOST 179

Anthill's, etc., from 9.30 until 3. A very hot day;
I wish that Generals were a hungrier, thirstier race.
We had some hght shelling, into which the Generals
walked without winking or reason, though they
made us take intervals.

G. L. has gone home. Ross turned up last night ;
glad to see him again. He said that a statement
was to be made almost at once, and that we weren't
going to be here for the winter. He had a notion
that the Italians were going to take our place. . . .

This morning there was a very heavy mist ; the
hills and the sea were curtained in it. My clothes
were wringing wet. The Greek interpreters have
been called up by the Greek mobilization and have
gone to Imbros, some of them to try to avoid going.
They have, says Christo, "kria kardia" (cold feet.)
Xenophon, in a moment of enthusiasm, changed
Turkish for Greek nationaUty. He now speaks
of the days of his Ottoman nationahty with a
solemn and mournful affection, as of a golden
age. He envies his cousin, Pericles, who was not
so carried away. Kyxiakidis is too old to go,
thank goodness.

Going into Anzac with the General, and glad to
be quit of the trenches. It's a weary business
walking through these narrow mountain trenches,
hearing the perpetual iteration of the same com-
mands. The trenches are curiously personal. Some
are so tidy as to be almost red-tape — ^the names
of the streets, notices, etc., everywhere — ^and others
slums. (Later.) I went into Anzac with the
General to see General Birdwood, but he had
gone out to see the bombardment from the sea.
The General went ofE to the New Zealand hospital
ship, Mahino. I went to get P. ofE, who was ill.

180 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

The General and I had a very philosophical talk
coming back. There was a radiance over Anzac ;
the sunken timbership shone against the sunset,
with the crew half of them naked. Shells screamed
over us, and in the Headquarters hollow parts of
them came whimpering down.

Saturday, October 2, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. This
morning General Godley, Colonel Artillery Johnson
and I went round to see the guns, all across the
Anafarta plain. Yesterday they had been shelling
a good deal and had killed some Gurkhas. . . .
We trudged about in the open, the Turkish hiUs
in a semicircle round us. We kept about fifty
yards apart. ... I thought it very risky for the
General ; however, nothing happened. Have been
meeting various school acquaintances these days. . . .

Sunday, October 3, 1915. The General and
Charlie B. went to Suvla. I lunched with S. B.
and H. Woods. We played chess. A good deal
of shelling. A fair number hit. . . .

Monday, October 4, 1915. Changed my dugout
this morning with an infinity of trouble, I didn't
like doing it ; it involved men standing on the
roof, and if one of them had been hit I should have
felt responsible. However, we did it aU right.
I stole some corrugated iron, and am well off. This
morning the Turks had a fierce demonstration.
The bullets kicked up the dust at the mouth of the
gully. Colonel Artillery Johnson just missed being
hit, but only one man struck. They shelled us with
big stuff that came over tired and groaning, bursting
with a beastly noise and torrents of smoke. General
C. lunched. He said people sent curiously inap-
propriate stores sometimes. In the middle of the
summer they had sent us here mufflers and cardigan

NO 2 OUTPOST 181

jackets, and two thousand swagger canes. These
were now at Mudros. Chauvel has taken over
command while the General is sick. He borrowed
all my novels.

Tuesday, October 5, 1915. General CO, turned
up. He said we are going to attack through
Macedonia. Heaven help us ! Bulgaria has been
given twenty-four hours' ultimatum by Russia.

Went into Anzac, to go by boat to Suvla. Met

C, who was at W (my private school). He

said there was no boat. I went on and played
chess, coming back through one of the most beauti-
ful evenings we have had, the sea a lake of gold
and the sky a lake of fire ; but C. and I agreed we

woiild not go back to Anzac or to W , if we

could help it.

Wednesday, October 6, 1916. I was going into
Suvla with Hastings, but in the morning a Turkish
deserter, Ahmed Ali, came in. He promised to
show us two machine-guns, which he did (one
German, immovable, and the other Turkish,
movable), and seven guns which he had collected ;
this he failed to do, and also to produce three
more comrades by firing a Turkish rifle as a
signal.

In the afternoon I had a signal from S. B. to say
he was leaving, sick, for Egypt. I walked in to
see, and found he had gastritis. , . .

Thursday, October 7, 1915. N.Z. and A. H.Q.
This morning we went up with Ahmed Ali, and lay
waiting for the Turkish deserters until after six.
One Turkish rifle shot, a thicker sound than ours,
was fired at Kidd's Post, but no Turks came. Ahmed
Ali was distressed. The dawn was fine; clouds of
fire all over the sky.

182 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

The Turkish deserters and prisoners were put
through a number of inquisitions. There was first
of all the local officer, who had captured the Turk
and was creditably anxious to anticipate the dis-
coveries of the Intelligence. Then there was G.H.Q.,
intensely jealous of its privileges, and then Divi-
sional H.Q., waiting rather sourly for the final
examination of the exhausted Turks.

The Turkish private soldiers, being Moslems,
were inspired rather with the theocratic ideals of
comradeship than by the esprit de corps of nation-
ality, and spoke freely. They were always well
treated, and this probably loosened their tongues,
but Ahmed Ali was more voluble than the majority
of his comrades, and I append information which
he supphed as an illustration of our examinations
and their results. The two sides of Turkish character
were very difficult to reconcile. On the one hand,
we were faced in the trenches by the stubborn and
courageous Anatolian peasant, who fought to the
last gasp ; on the other hand, in our dugouts we had
a friendly prisoner, who would overwhelm us with
information. " The fact is you are just a bit above
our trenches. If only you can get your fire rather
lower, you will be right into them, and here exactly
is the dugout of our Captain, Riza Kiazim Bey,
a poor, good man. You miss him all the time.
If you will take the line of that pine-tree, you will
get him."

Diary. Saturday, October 9, 1915. A. and N.Z.
H.Q. Ahmed Ali proposed coming to England
with me when I went there. . . . Last night we
had bad weather; a sort of whirlwind came down.
It whizzed away the iron sheeting over my dugout

NO. 2. OUTPOST 183

and poured in a cascade of water, soaking every-
thing. Iron sheeting was flying about hke razors ;
it was not possible to light candles. Finally, Ryrie
came and lent me a torch, and I slept, wet but
comfortable, under my cloak. Our people and
the Turks both got excited, and heavy rifle fire
broke out, as loud as the storm. An angry dawn,
very windy and rifles crackling.

At this point the diary ends, for the writer was
evacuated on the hospital ship, and did not return
to Active Service for several months. Of all those
who had sailed from Egypt with General Godley
on April 12th, the General himself remained the
only man who saw the campaign through from
the first to the last day, with the rare exception
of a few days of sickness.

KUT

1916

KUT, 1916

AFTER some months of convalescence, I was
passed fit for Active Service. Admiral Wemyss,
Commander-in-Chief of the East Indian Fleet, had
done me the honour to ask me to serve under him,
when I was weU again, as his liaison and Intelligence
officer. I accepted very gladly, for I knew how
devoted to him were aU those who served Admiral
Wemyss. The unappreciative War Office showed
no reluctance in dispensing with my services, but
my orders got lost, and it was only late in February
when I left. When my weak qualifications in the
way of languages were put before the Depart-
ment concerned, the brief comment was : " This
must be an immoral man to know so many
languages."

About this time the question was perpetually
debated as to whether war should be made mainly
on the one great front or en petits paquets; that is,
practically all over the globe. " Hit your enemy
where he is weakest," said some, while others
were violently in favour of striking where hei was
strongest.

When I left England, she was in a curious state
of official indecision. It would then have been,
obviously, greatly to our advantage had we been
able to get the Turks out of the war, for the collapse
of Bulgaria would almost certainly have followed.

1S9

190 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

On the other hand, Russia had been promised
Constantinople and the Church of Santa Sophia,
and while these promises held it was idle to think
that the Grand Turk would compromise or resign
his position as head of Islam. So the dread in the
minds of Englishmen of friction with Russia was
uncensciously adding square leagues to the British
Empire, by forcing us reluctantly to attack an
unwilling foe. In the end, we chose both Scylla
and Charybdis, for the Turks remained in the war,
Russia went out. Yet we survived, victoriously.
Allah is greatest.

The story of this campaign is the most difficult
to tell. The writer was in a humble position,
but in a position of trust, and can only record what
he saw and the things with which all men's ears
were too familiar in Mesopotamia.

Diary. Monday, February 28, 1916. S.8.
" Mooltan." Off Marseilles. The Germans are by
way of not torpedoing our boats until Wednesday,
but to-day is St. Leander's Day, not a good day,
on the sea, at this time of year. They have tor-
pedoed four boats these last days near Marseilles.
We are off the coast of Corsica, duU and unattrac-
tive. . . . John Baird is here. . . .

Wednesday, March 1, 1916. SS. " Mooltan." Yes-
terday J. B., Captain Cummings and I went ashore
at Malta. We heard of the torpedoing of the
Maloja ofiE Dover. I saw Admiral Limpus, an old
friend ; then dined with Admiral de Robeck. I
saw R. K. He still wants to go up the Dardanelles.
This seems to me to be a war of ants and attrition,
and no one ought to think of the glory of the Army
or the Navy before winning the war. I do not

JCJVTXX-X AWAIJN 191

think he cares if he is at the bottom of the sea, as
long as the country and the Navy is covered with
imperishable splendour. He talked about the bliz-
zard as if it had been a zephyr. You can't beat
that sort. A lot of old Admirals rolled up. They
had rejoined long past the age as Commanders of
Sweepers, or in any and every kind of capacity.
The spirit of their Elizabethan ancestors was not
more tough or fine than theirs. . . . Left J. B. and
Jack Marriott.

Monday, March 6, 1916. Ismailia. We landed
without incident from the Mooltan. The last day,
at limcheon, there were two tremendously loud bangs,
the lids of hatches falling ; they sounded exactly
Uke cannon shot. Nobody moved at lunch, which
I thought was good. Am staying with 0' Sullivan.
He has been eighteen years in Central Africa.
To-night I went to the Club and found Kettle,
ahve, whom I thought dead — very glad to find it
wasn't true — and lots of Anzacs. Then went for a
walk with the Admiral ; I understand why men like
serving him. Afterwards tea with General Birdwood
and a yarn about the Peninsula. AU the men from
Anzac talk of it with something like reverence.
I dined with General Godley. I have been doing
work between the Navy and the Army ; found them
very stifE. Yesterday they said : " What can
you want to know ? " Also, in my humble opinion,
what they are doing is wrong.

Friday, March 10, 1916, Cairo. Back again at
Zamalek. They have sown a proper, green, English
\ai,vm. instead of the clover which we put in for
economy. Saw C. in the evening. Agreed that
for the time being our Arab policy was finished.
... If the Russians go dhead and threaten Con-

192 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

stantinople, the French agreement may stand. If,
on the other hand, they cannot get beyond Tre-
bizond, then Arabia will probably be a Confedera-
tion, perhaps nominally under the Turks. The
Powers would probably look favourably at this,
as it would be a return to the bad old principle.
It would constitute one more extension of the
life of the Turk, outside Turkey, made miserable
to him and his subjects, during which all his legatees
would intrigue to improve their own position.
They would go on fermenting discontent amongst
the subjects of the Turk, and when it did not exist
they would create it. It is the old cjmicism that this
war has done nothing to get rid of. On the other
hand, if annexation follows there will be two results :
(1) The population in the annexed French and
Russian spheres will be rigorously conscripted. I
think we ought to do our best to prevent the Arabs
being the subjects and victims of High Explosive
Powers. They themselves don't realize what it means,
and simply look forward to the boredom of having
to beat their swords into ploughshares and take
up the dullness of civUization. The second result
is that we shall have vast, conterminous frontiers
with France and Russia, and that we shall be com-
pelled to become a huge military power and adopt
the Prussianism that we are fighting. There ought
to be a self-denying ordinance about annexation.
We should none of us annex.

Wednesday, March 8, 1916. Cairo. I arranged for
Storrs to come down the Red Sea with the Com-
mander-in-Chief. In the evening I saw the Sultan
at the Palace. He prophecied that the Russians
would be in Trebizond in eight days, and that we
should be in Solloum in the same time ; he put

EGYPT AGAIN 193

our arrival at Bagdad at the end of May. The
shows were melting, he said, and the waters of the
Tigris and Euphrates rising; the Turks might be
cut off, and might have to surrender. ... He said
we did not understand the Moslems or what was
their fraternity. In his hall he had two signs,
" God and His Prophet," and the other, " I live
by God's will ! " Any Moslem who entered saw
these, and knew him for his brother. He would
rather have been a farmer, dressed as a farmer,
and, he added, rather quaintly, sitting in his
automobile, amongst his fields, than in his Palace
with interviews before him all day long.

He had accepted the Throne when it had been
offered to him after consideration, because the good
of Egypt was bound up in our success, and as
Sultan he could help us. He regretted he had
not been allowed to help more. He was loyal,
but neither we, nor any man, could buy his honour.
We could throw him over at any moment. So
be it ; he knew what his honour and indivi-
dual dignity demanded. General Maxwell, he said,
understood the Moslems. Even the Duke of Gon-
naught could hardly have done better in Egypt.
He, the Sultan, had deplored Gallipoli, both before
and after. We English were bons enfants, but
did not understand the East. He gave many
messages to his friends, especially General Bird-
wood.

Thursday, March 9, 1916. Cairo. Saw Jaafar
Pasha, a prisoner. He was wounded by a sword-
thrust in the arm. They had had a good old-
fashioned melfe. He was just off shopping, taking
his captivity with great philosophy. It was beauti-
ful weather. The Bougainvillea was purple and

14

194 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

scarlet all over the house. It looked as fairylike
as a Japanese dwelling.

Friday, March 10, 1916. Cairo. The Admiral
came up on Thursday night. I lunched with
General Maxwell. Bron came. He said his leg
troubled him flying, but he loved it. I saw his
Colonel, who told me that he was worried, as if
he fell in the desert he was done, as he could
not walk great distances like the others, with his
wooden leg.

I have got a " Who's Who," for Arabia, but I
want a " Where's Where."

Saturday, March 11, 1916. Ismailia. The Aus-
tralians have been having high old times in
Cairo. We have to pay for their extraordinarily
fine fighting qualities, but it's a pity that they
can't be more quiet. . . . They admire General
Birdwood, who's got a difficult job. We owed a
lot to their initiative at Anzac, when all their
officers were killed. Salutes, after all, matter less
than fighting. In peace they resent General
Godley's discipline, and that's natural, but it's
inevitable, and they know it, when it comes to
fighting. Charlie Bentinck came down with us,
going home; I hope he gets there aU right.

Tuesday, March 14, 1916. Ismailia. Maxwell
is now definitely recalled. . . . It's a pity to take
away the man whose name is everything in Egypt.
On Saturday I dined with the Admiral and Potts
of the Khedive's yacht. Like Jimmy Watson, he
was very fond of his ex-Chief. Sunday I lunched
with the Admiral and General Murray, and saw my
old friend Tyrrell. Yesterday the Admiral left with
Philip Neville for SoUoum. I should have liked
to have been in that show.

EGYPT AGAIN 195

Here are criticisms and indescretions, which are
better left lying at the bottom of a drawer, . . .

All are very sad about Desmond Fitzgerald's
death. There was no one quite like him. He
would have played a great part. He was extra-
ordinarily fine, too fine to be a type, though he
was a type, but not of these times. I shall never
forget him during the Retreat, always calm and
always cheerful. Bron came, and we had a long
talk.

Wednesday, March 15, 1916. Cairo. This morn-
ing I saw Jaafar Pasha for a minute. He is
becoming less and less a prisoner. Was off to shop,
and said that he heard that Cairo was a nice town.
He was unmoved by the war. I said to M, that the
war ought to prevent one's pulses ever fluttering
again. M. said to me : " Yes, unless it makes
them flutter for ever."

Here there followed naval, strategical, political
and commercial considerations which are irrelevant
to this published diary.

Diary. March 15, 1916. Went to the citadel
to see the old Sheikh, It was a lovely day of heat,
fresh winds, clear air and flowers everywhere.

Wednesday, March 22, 1916. Ismailia. I have
neglected my diary. Yesterday I went and said
good-bye to General Birdwood, General Godley,
he and everybody went to see Maxwell off. It
was a very remarkable demonstration ; all were
there — ^red hats and tarbouches, blue gowns and
the khaki of the private soldier. We were all
downhearted at his going.

To-day I rode with Temperley through the groves

196 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

of Ismailia, out by the lagoon. The desert was
in splendid form. The Australians were bathing
everywhere and French sailors were paddling. I
lunched with General Russell. ... I dined with
General Godley. All the talk was of Mesopotamia.
Some one said at dinner that no securely beleaguered
force had ever cut its way out. I could only think
of Xenophon, who. General Gwyime said, quite
truly, was not beleaguered, and also of Plevna,
that didn't get out.

Sunday, March 26, 1916. Cairo. This morning
we leave for Mesopotamia, by the Viceroy^s train.
He arrived yesterday, having been shot at by a
torpedo on the way. The soldiers are becoming
discontented. Their pay is four months due, and
when they get it they are paid in threepenny bits
for which they only receive twopence in exchange.
Hence their irritation. Tommy Howard's brigade has
nearly all got commissions. There are now forty-
seven oflficers and only enough soldiers left for their
servants. Saw Uncle Bob G., who reminded me
of Sayid Talib, the Lion of Mesopotamia and the
terror of the Turks, with whom on one occasion I
travelled from Constantinople. Sayid Talib once
wanted to get rid of a very good Vali of Basrah.
He went round to all the keepers of hashish dens
and infamous houses and got them to draw up
a petition : " We, the undersigned, hear with
anguish that our beloved Vali is to be removed by
the Merciful Government. He is a good man, has
been just to all, and most just to us, who now implore
the mercy of the Sublime Porte." Constantinople
was in a virtuous mood. The experts of Basrah
were summoned. They expressed their horror at
the support which the Vali was receiving from all

THE RED SEA 197

the worst elements in the town. The Vali was
removed. Sayid Talib scored. He was on our
side, and remained in Basrah, but we made him a
prisoner and sent him to India, I believe.

Monday, March 27, 1916. H.M.S. "Euryalus."
Gulf of Suez. Yesterday, Sunday, the Prince of
Wales, the Viceroy, General Birdwood and the
High Commissioner travelled down to Ismailia.
Storrs and I were also of the company. General
Godley was at the station to meet the Prince, and
a lot of others.

Tuesday, March 2S, 1916. H.M.S. " Euryalus." I
wonder what situation we shall find in Mesopotamia.
Willcocks in Cairo said that the Arabs were feeding
Townshend's people. " In the old days," he said,
" Elijah was fed by the ravens — ^that is, ' orab,'
which means Arabs as well as ravens." That was
how he explained that miracle.

It's getting very hot. I am working at Hindu-
stani. The Stafi here are all first class. It's luck
to find Colonel de Sausmarez, who was on the
Bacchante, now promoted.

Thursday, March 30, 1916. H.M.S. "Euryahis."
Took a bad fall down the ladder. Storrs sleeps
in a casemate. The only ventilation is through a
gun whose breech has now been closed. Have
been writing precis and political notes. We are
bound to make mistakes in dealing with the Arabs,
but they need not matter if they are passive mis-
takes ; they can be corrected. If they are active,
they are much harder to remedy. . . . Our people
divide the world into two categories. The Ulster-
men, the Serbs and the Portuguese are good, loyal
people, because they are supposed to put our in-
terests first, whereas the Bulgars, the Arabs, etc..

198 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

are beastly traitors because sometimes a thought of
self-interest crosses their minds.

It's raining hard this morning and it's cooler.
Hope to get into the trenches at Aden, but doubt
there being time. Am learning Hindustani. A
number of the same words mean different things.
Kal means yesterday or to-morrow, i.e. one day
distant ; but on the other hand parson means the
day after to-morrow or the day before yesterday.
This must occasionally make muddles about
appointments.

Friday, March 31, 1916. Aden. Got up early
this morning and went over to the Northbrook.
The Turks at Lahej are being bombarded. The
Admiral's going part of the way to see it. Six
seaplanes ofE. A heavy, hot, grey day. The Turks
are fighting well. There is no Ul-will here. They
say the Turk is a member of the club, but has not
been in it lately. We are feeding the Turks and
they feed us. Caravans come and go as usual.
There are great difficulties in the way of blockade.
We can't hit our enemies without also hitting our
friends, and yet if we do nothing our prestige suffers.

A conference this morning. Fifty years ago
Colonel Pelly said that the Turks were like the
Thirty-nine Articles ; every one accepts them, but
nobody remembers them or what they are. India
seems extremely apathetic about Aden. We left
early this morning. Last night I saw Colonel
Jacob, who has been twelve years at Aden and in
the hinterland. In the evening I went with the
Brigadier to the Turkish prisoners. They said they
had surrendered because life was impossible in the
Yemen. They had been six to seven years without
pay, had had bad food and perpetual fighting.

ADEN 199

Then they had been put on a ship to go back to
their families, then taken o£E again and sent to
fight us. Human nature could not stand it, they
said. They liked their Commander, Said Pasha,
who was good to the soldiers, but they complained
of their non-commissioned officers. . . .

We seem to be perpetually changing our officers
here. This CO. is the fifth in a short time. Jacob
is the only man who talks Arabic, and there is not
a soul who talks Turkish. Wrote to Egypt to get
an interpreter.,

Sunday, April 2, 1916. H.M.S. " Euryalus." We
are steaming through a grey-black gloom, like an
English autumn afternoon, only the thermometer
is 92 and there are no rooks cawing. There are
lowering skies everywhere. Talked about Arabia
yesterday with the Admiral.

Have been re-reading Whigan's Persia and other
Gulf books. Wish that I had George Lloyd's
memoranda. The present position is unsatisfactory.
We h^ve policed and lighted and pacified this
Gulf for a hundred years, and we are entitled to a
more definite status. We ought to have Bunder
Abbas. Otherwise, if the Russians come down
the Gulf to Bunder Abbas, they hold the neck of
the bottle of the Persian Gulf and we shall be
corked in our own bottle ; they would be on the
flank of India ; they would be fed by a railway,
while our large naval station would be cooking
away in Elphinstone's Inlet (which is only another
name for a slow process of frying), where we should
have battle casualties in peace-time from the heat.
Elphmstone's Inlet to Bushire is a poor Wei-hai-wei
to a first-rate Port Arthur. Then, if the Russians
come down, any defensive measures which we may

200 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

be forced into taking will appear aggressive when
the Russians are on the spot. They would not
appear aggressive now. We have a prescriptive
right to Bunder Abbas, which we ought to strengthen.
It doesn't involve territorial annexations.

Monday, April 3, 1916. H.M.S."Euryahis." Last
night I had a long and rather acrimonious argument

with and on the question of Arab policy.

They said : " You must punish the Arabs if they
don't come in on our side." I said : " You have
no means of punishing them. All you can do is
to antagonize them."

There is news of a Zeppelin raid on London.
Everybody is anxious.

Tuesday, April 4, 1916. H.M.S. " Muryalus."
Muskat Last night I had my fourth Hindustani
lesson, a very easy one. Jack Marriott is extra-
ordinarily quick at languages. My teacher said
that his affianced wife is fourteen and that he kept
her in a cage at Bushire. Talked with the Admiral
and Captain Burmester. . . .

To-day is a wild day, Arabia crouching, yellow
like a lion, in a sand-storm, and spray and sand
flying in layers on the ship. All the land is lurid
and the sea foaming and the sky black. If only
there had been some sharks at sea and lions on
shore, it would have been a perfect picture. This
afternoon it cleared and became beautiful. We
passed a desolate coast with no sign of life, where
it looked as if a man would fry in half an hour
in summer. A few dhows on the sea were all we
saw. My last journey here came back vividly
and the time at Bahrein after we were wrecked
in the Africa.

Wireless came into Basrah to say the spring

MUSKAT 201

offensive was beginning. We put into Muskat. I
found that the Resident, Colonel Ducat, was a
neighbour. There has been a row at Chahbar,
and the Philomel, which we expected to find here,
has left, telegraphed for this morning. The news
here is that the tribes intend to attack Muskat,
but it's not believed. We went ashore this evening,
and a Beluchi boy took the Admiral and all of us
round. The people who had not been to the East
before were enchanted by the quiet, the scent of
musk, and the evening behind the Sultan's Palace.
Last time I was here was on Christmas Day, with
Leland Buxton. I was very sick, carrying a huge
bag of Maria Teresa dollars. The Portuguese forts
and the names of the ships that come here, painted
in huge white letters on the cliffs, are the remarkable
things about the place. There is a sort of a silent
roU-call of the ships. The men like writiag their
names up in white letters. Matrah is round the
comer, and looks bigger than Muskat. You have got
to get to it by boat. Muskat itself is completely cut
off. I saw a straight-looking Arab from Asir who
had been with the Turks and had information,
and asked the Agent to send him on to Aden.

Wednesday, April 5, 1916. Muskat. Came
ashore early this morning. Then came the Admiral
and his Staff, and we went to the Sultan's house.
He had about thirty followers. We drank sherbet
like scented lip-salve, and the sailors didn't like it.
The Admiral and the Sultan talked. Later the
Sultan came here with seven A.D.C.'s and a nephew
who talked very good English which he had learned
at Harrow. The Sultan has got a lot of rather
nice-looking little horses and a monstrous goat
mth ears that are about 3 feet long. ThSj, Sultan

202 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

gets 5 per cent, of the customs of this place. Jack
Marriott went to see a prisoner in the Portuguese
fort. He was Sheikh of a village in which a murder
had been committed. They had faUed to catch
the murderer, and so the Sheikh had to suffer im-
prisonment himself. Not a bad plan, reaUy. It's
the old Anglo-Saxon idea. That sort of thing
discourages men from pushing for power and makes
them very energetic, for their own sakes, when
they have power. Everything seems quiet in the
hinterland. The people here are Bunyas, who cheat
the Sultan, slim aristocratic Arabs, and goriUa-Uke
negroes. They are mostly armed to the teeth.
Sheets of rain fell this afternoon.

Thursday, April 6, 1916, Persian Gulf. We left
early this morning. Some very fine king-fish were
brought aboard, about 4 feet long. Great heat.
We had an excellent telegram about Gorringe's
offensive in Mesopotamia ; the Turks driven back.
The Admiral in great spirits. I am tremendously
glad, because I have always felt that we were
coming to a tragedy. I remember the telegram read
out to us at Anzac and the cheers — " The Turks
are beaten! The way lies open to Bagdad!" — and
our enthusiasm and the disappointment after it,
and I did not think this would succeed. Hanna,
on the left bank of the Tigris, is reported taken.
That ought to open Sinn on the right bank.

Friday, April 7, 1916. Persian Oulf. . . . To-
day we were told by wireless telegram that we had
a slave of the Sultan's on board. Quite true; so
we have. . . . He said he had been with the
Sultan eight years and that if he were sent back
he feared for his throat. He drew his finger across
it very tenderly, and everybody roared with laughter.

PERSIAN GULF 203

I do not see that the Sultan has a leg to stand
on. If the man went to him eight years ago,
he went either of his own free will, in which case
he can leave, or he was sold, and we do not
recognize anything except bondage, no traffic in
slavery.

The PhilomeVs prisoners have been transferred
to us. One of them looks like an old nobleman.
His name is Shah Dulla. He held up Chahbar
for 4,000 rupees, like other old noblemen, and
was captured with seven bearded patriarchs by
the Philomel four days ago. They are dignified
people.

Friday, April 8, 1916. H.M.S. " Euryalus."
Bushire. A very cold morning with a clear sky.
It's a nuisance having lost all my coats. Here I
leave Edward. I hope he will be all right. He is
to foUow by the first opportunity with the other
servants and my kit. McKay, who is a jolly
fellow, will look after him. The news this morning
is that we have again improved our position and have
taken the second Turkish line. The Russians are
advancing. There was a fight here a couple of
nights ago. Our Agent, his brother and four sepoys
were killed last night at Lingah.

Sunday, April 9, 1916. H.M.S. " Imogene."
Shat-el-Arab. Yesterday Commodore Wake came
aboard. ... He said that an officer had put land
mines down, and that some time after this officer
had been recalled. People in Bushire naturally
wanted him either to remove or to mark his land
mines, but he said that they were all right, as they
were only exploded by electricity. The following
night, however, there were loud explosions when
dogs gambolled over these mines, so people still

204 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

walk like Agag, and walking is not a popular form
of exercise round Bushire. To-day we are in a
brown waste of waters that I remember well, a
dismal hinterland to a future Egypt. We passed
a hospital ship early this morning, in these
yellow shallow waters. It reminded me of the
Dardanelles, but there it was much better, for
there the sea and sky were beautiful and the
climate, by comparison, excellent.

Ages ago, in Egypt, Machel used to talk of ghosts.
This ship conjures them up aU right — ^trips with
Sir Nicholas and the children to the island and
many Other people, some of them still in Constan-
tinople. Sir Nicholas would have been surprised
if he could have seen the name of his yacht written
on the rocks at Muskat, and, as the Admiral said,
he would not have liked any one else in command
of his yacht, here or in any other waters. Town-
shend has telegraphed some time ago to say he
could only hold out until April 1st. Here we are
at the 9th.

Sunday, April 10, 1916. H.M.S. " Imogene."
Kurna. Yesterday we arrived at Basra. It looked
very beautiful and green, but we only had a short
time. Everything seemed in a state of great con-
fusion. Two Generals came aboard. They said
we had taken two out of three lines of the trenches
that we had got to take in the first attack. Then
our men had been checked. We ought to have
taken the third line last night. The Siim position
still remains to be taken. If we had been successful
last night (and we ought to have heard this morning),
we have got a chance of relieving Townshend. If
not, I am afraid there is not much chance. . . .
The doctors are being pretty hotly criticized, also

BASKA 205

the Royal Indian Marine, though how they can
be expected to know this river I can't see. Appar-
ently they asked for iron barges from India and
were given wooden barges that the banks and the
current continually break. They asked here for
one type of river-craft from home, and were told
they must have another. Lynch out here says
that Lynch in London has never been consulted,
though they deny this at home. The troops have
only two days' supplies. The soldiers in Basra
were cheerful ; the wounded also, for the JSrst time,
were cheerful, "because they thought it had been
worth it and that we are going to succeed. . . .

There is a great storm getting up. The river's
a vast rolling flood of yellow water, palm-trees
beyond and again beyond that, marshes and glimpses
of a skeleton land, with marsh Arabs always in
the background, like ghouls, swarming on every
battlefield, killing and robbing the wounded on
both sides. The Turks, they say utNBasra, had
said : " Let us both have a truce and go for the
Arabs and then we can turn to and fight again."
Nureddin, the Turkish Commander-in-Chief, is sup-
posed to have been at Harrow with Townshend.
I should think that it was really a pension at
Lausanne. I saw P. Z. Cox yesterday. He and
Lady Cox were very good to me years ago in the
Gulf. . . . The Russians have not yet met any
considerable Turkish force. If we do not relieve
Townshend, and have to fall back, we ^ shall be
attacked by all the Arabs, who are well armed.
They say a Royal Commission is being sent to
India because at home they ariticipate a failure
here and want a scapegoat, which they have already
provided in Nixon.

206 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

I dined with Gertrude Bell, Millborrow, whom
I had last seen at Bahrein, and Wilson, whom I
had known before. We transferred here at Kuma
from the Imogene on to a tiny Admiralty gun-
boat, as usual leaving aU our kit. Dick Bevan
says that he has a vision of perpetual landings
and expeditions until we arrive in China, with
always the same troubles, too few mules, too many
A.P.M.'s, etc. This is a war threshold to conjure
up dreams and visions. It would be hard to find
one more tragic. It's a curious fate that sends
us a second time, unprepared, to one of the richest
countries in the world that, like Egypt, has combined
fertility and desert, with a stream controlling its
future.

Tuesday, April 11, 1916. H.M.S. " Snakefly."
Monday night we got off the Imogene on to the
Snakefly, one of the twelve Admiralty gunboats
built for this expedition. The Admiralty don't
seem able to stop building them, now they've
started. They were sent out here in pieces, then
put together. One has been taken by the Turks. ^
The Snakefly draws 2 feet 9 inches only. Webster
is her captain. We slept on deck aU right. We
saw practically no trafl&c at first on the river, and
could not understand why we did not pass boats
coming back empty for supphes. We passed many
Indian troops, mainly on the left bank of the river ;
also isolated stations with telegraph-masters as chiefs.
These men go out two or four miles into the desert
with only a couple of rifles. These small posts
contain the maximum of boredom and anxiety,
because there is nothing to do, and if any force of
Arabs came along they would be done in. An
' Taken back after.

ALI GHAEBI 207

enterprising Indian sentry fired at us in the night.
We passed dour, scowling Arabs in villages and
groups on the bank with flocks and herds, buffaloes
and goats, men more savage than the Philistines,
but armed with rifles. An almost endless column
of our cavalry wound its way through marsh and
desert, over the green grass, and here and there
fires sent up their smoke where meals were cooked.
It struck me as more curious than the Australians
round the Pyramids. At 6 p.m. we reached Ali
Gharbi. I talked to an officer of the — th Punjabis.
They were aU very depressed at the failure of Aylmer's
attack on the 8th March. . . . Townshend was the
man they swore by. The 4th Devons, where John
Kennaway is, are said to be at the front. There
are flies that bite like bulldogs everywhere. Each
night we have had lightning over towards Kut like
a sort of malignant and fantastic Star of Bethlehem
to light us on.

Wednesday, April 12, 1916. H.M.S. " Snakefly."
Last night the weather broke. The Admiral's
got a cabin about 6 feet long by 2^ across. He
put his head out of the window and said : " Would
any of you fellows like to come in ? " It was a
beastly night. Our clothes are the thinnest tropical
khaki, and they tear like a woman's veil. There
was no shelter. I got into a conning-tower, like
a telescope, but finally walked about. There
seemed to be people's faces everywhere on deck,
though there was a lot of water. I kept my
dictionary dry. Now it's fine and bright. At
seven this morning, when I had gone below, a Boy
Scout of eighteen, one of the crew, went overboard.
He was rescued almost at once, and swam lightly
and gallantly. He was lucky. To-day is the 12th,

208 MONS, ANZAC, A.ND KUT

my lucky day, but I have only got one extra shirt
and one blanket, and a Turkish dictionary for a
pillow. . . .

Everything seems greater and greater chaos. . . .
We started this campaign against one of the great
military Powers of the world with two brigades of
Indians, who ought not to have been used at all,
if it could have been avoided, on this ground,
which to them is holy. We started with the wrong
type of boat, and also Indian Generals who looked
on the expedition as a frontier campaign. ... If
we fail to relieve Townshend, I suppose the best
thing to do would be to cut our losses and retire
to Kurna and hold that line, but if we do that the
Turks can fortify the river and make it impregnable.
We rau on to the bank last night, and stayed there.
We spent an uncomfortable wet night, but got off
all right this morning. Thisre was an encampment
close by. We couldn't make out if they were
friends or enemies ; the Admiral didn't bother.
We all want a clean pair of socks and fewer
mosquitoes.

Thursday, April 13, 1916. Near Sanayat. It
was at noon yesterday that we arrived at Ah
Gharbi. The Admiral saw General Lake. We are
cruelly handicapped by lacking transport and not
being able to get it. In the afternoon I ci-ossed
the river and saw General GUman at Felahiya. I
was very glad to see him again. He had been on
our left with the 13th Division at Anafarta. One
of the best men I have met. We had a long talk.
. . . Then I came back with Dick Bevan. What's
happened is this : we got in such a state about
Townshend being able to hold out till the end of
January that we rushed up troops and attacked

H.M.S. 8NAEEFLY 209

without the possibility of making preparation for
the wounded, ambulances, etc., and we failed.
. . . Townshend has got 5,000 Arabs with him,
and the bouches inutiles have told enormously,
but T. has apparently promised these people his
protection and nothing will make him send tTiem
away, and he's right. The strain on the men with
him has been very great indeed ; some of the older
men are very sick. No one thinks that he's got
a dog's chance of getting out. The — th were badly
cut up at Anafarta, but they kept their keenness,
and at the beginning of this show their officers
could not keep them back, on the 8th of March. The
fight on the 9th of April was very bad luck. AU
the men were very cold and tired. A hot cup of
cofEee might have made the whole difference. . . .
We shall have to face a lot of trouble with the Arabs
and look out for Nasryah, which could be cut ofE
by marsh Arabs from Basra way and turned into
another Kut. Most people think that the line that
we ought to defend is Nasryah — ^Amara — ^Ahwaz.
The Admiral's going to Nasryah. I suggested his
taking General Gilhnan, and he is off too. Every one
is raging against the economy of India, especially
a man called Meyer, the Treasury member for the
Council of India. He is said to have refused to
give any help. In this flat land they need observa-
tion balloons ; none forthcoming. They asked for
transport from May to Christmas, and then got one
launch. . . .

I saw the Admiral in the evening. He was
cheered after talking to General Gorringe. We
walked by the river. We met some of the Black
Watch — clean, smart men. There was a great
bridge of boats, without rails, swaying and tossing

15

210 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

in the hurricane and covered with driven foam
from the raging yellow water. Across this there
lurched Madrassis, Sudanese, terrified cavalry horses,
mules that seemed to think that there was only
water on one side, and that they would be on dry
land if they jumped off on the other. We are
out of range, but shelling is going on and one can
fix points in the landscape by -bursts. The eternal
flatness is depressing. This morning I saw Leach-
man, the political officer. He has had a lot of
adventures in Arabia — a very good fellow, whom
everybody likes, which is rare. . . . He was
against our going farther back than Sheikh Saad,
both from the point of view of strategy and also
because it would be playing a low game on our
own friendlies. The Arabs on the bank between
Sheikh Saad and Ali Gharbi are, apparently, past
praying for.

This afternoon I went out with the Admiral. . . .
Townshend has been telegraphing to-day. His men
are dying of starvation. The whole situation is
pitiful. Here the troops have been on half rations
for some time. Our boats are many, but insufficient.
They are of every kind, from an Irawaddy steamer
to the steamers of the Gordon Relief Expedition
and L.C.C. boats. We met some of the 6th Devons,
and I asked them if the way the Admiral was going
was safe. They said : " We be strangers here zur,"
as if they were Exeter men in Taunton. . . .
The rain is making the relief practically impossible.
Last night there was heavy firing and we ad-
vanced 2,000 yards, but the main positions are
still untaken. To-night I met Percy Herbert,
very useful, as my tropical khaki is coming to
pieces.

H.M.S. STO^EFLY 211

Friday, April 14, 1916. H.M.S. " Stonefly." . . .
A furious wind got up and drove mountains of yellow
water before it, against the stream. The skies
were black. Captain Nunn, the Senior Naval
Officer, wanted to go to Sheikh Saad. I wanted
to go to H.Q. to see Colonel Beach, Chief of the
Intelligence, who has written to me to come. We
got off with difficulty into the stream. It was like
a monstrous snake, heaving and coiling. We only
drew 3 feet and we were very top-heavy with
iron, and I thought we were bound to turn over.
I said so to Singleton, the captain, who said : " I
quite agree. It serves them d — --d well right if we
do, for sending us out in this weather." This
thought pleased him, though it did not satisfy
me. Nunn said it was the worst weather he had
seen in the year. I got off at Wadi thankfully,
and went to see Beach, but it was not all over yet.
He wanted to go and see how the bridge of boats
was standing the strain. The end of the bridge
of boats had been removed to let the steamers
through, though there were none passing. It was
twisting like an eel trying to get free, and going up
and down like a moving staircase in agony. There
was foam and gloom and strain and fury and the
screaming of the timber, but the bridge held. The
engineers were calmly smoking their pipes at the
end, wondering in a detached way if it would hold.
I prefer fighting any day to this sort of thing. Then
I went walking with Beach. He asked me to be
ready in case Townshend wanted me. I dined with
General Lake, General Money, Williams and Dent;
capital fellows. Had an interesting time after
dinner. The future is doijbtful. If we have to
retire, we shall have a double loss of prestige, Kut

212 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

gone and our own retreat. When we want to
advance later, we shall find all our present positions
fortified against us. A retreat will also involve
the abandonment of our friendlies. This campaign
has taught me why we have been called perfide
Albion. It's very simple. We embark upon a
campaign without any forethought at all. Then,
naturally we get into extreme difficulties. After
that, we talk to the natives, telling them quite
truthfully that we have got magnificent principles
of truth, justice, tolerance, etc., that where the
British Raj id all creeds are free. They like these
principles so much that they forget to count our
guns. Then, principles or no principles, we have
got to retreat before a vastly superior force, and the
people who have come in with us get strafed.
Then they all say "perfide Albion," though it's
really nobody's fault — sometimes not even the
fault of the Gavernment.

I slept on the Malamir, on deck. It was very
wet in the night, but I kept fairly dry.

Saturday, April 15, 1916. " Malamir" I went
and saw the Turkish prisoners in one of the most
desolate camps on earth ; some Albanians amongst
them. They said there were munition factories
in Bagdad, that 4,000 Turks had gone to
Persia — ^they did not know if it was to the oil-field
at Basra or against the Russians. It's Basra and
the oil-field that are important to us.

Lunched aboard the Malamir. General Lake
was very kind. I went ofif on an Irawaddy steamer,
a " p " boat. The Captain told appalling stories
of the wounded on board after Ctesiphon. It
took them seventeen days to Amara, which sounds
incredible. They had to turn back three times at

THE TIGKIS 213

Wadi and return to Kut, because they were heavily
attacked at Wadi by Kurds. General Nixon had
to turn back too. The transport was so over-
crowded that men were pushed overboard. I met
an Indian political officer on board . . . (and again).
. . . He said one thing to me that was not indis-
creet. Once at Abazai he had seen a Pathan
wrestling. Before he wrestled he held up his
hands, and cried an invocation : " Dynamis "
(Might). He thought it must have come from the
days of Alexander. He had been in the Dujaila
fight on March 8th, and talked about it, unhappilyi
He also said that the corruption of the Babus at
Basra was awful.

On board our ship there were piles of bread with-
out any covering, but a swarming deposit of flies ;
good for everybody's stomach.

Sunday, April 16, 1916. Half a day's food is
being dropped daily by aeroplanes in Kut. . . .
I met a very jolly Irish officer, a V.C. He said
that when the war broke out he, and many like
himseK, saw the Mohammedan difficulty. They had
themselves been ready to refuse to fight against
Ulster ; why should Indians fight the Turks ?
We were fighting for our own lives, but the quarrel
did not reaUy concern Indians. They might have
been expected to be spectators. Then the orders
came for them to go to France. They called up
the Indian officers and said to them : " Germany
has declared war, and on second thoughts, a Jehad.
She quarrelled with England first and then pretended
she was fighting for Islam." The Indian officers
agreed, and came along readily. They were then
ordered to Mesopotamia. They again called upon
the Indian officers, who said : " We would sooner

214 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

go anywhere else in the wOTld, but we will go, and
we will not let the regiment down." They were
told to go to Bagdad, and were willing to go, though
their frame of mind was the same, . . . Then I
went oflf to interrogate prisoners. It was tremen-
dously hot. The prisoners were under a guard of
Indians, and I found it hard to make the Indians
understand my few words of Hindustani. The
prisoners' morale seemed good. They said they
were not tired of the war and that they did not
think of disobeying orders, for that, they said,
would be awful and would make chaos. They
thought that what pleased God was going to happen,
and they were inclined to believe that that would
be victory for the Turks. They said twenty-seven
guns had come up in the last eight days, 17 cm.
and 20 cm. If that's the case, they can shell
us out of here. I told the Admiral, and in the
evening we walked. We met General Gorringe
... I am tremendously sorry for these men here.
Last year the God of battles was on our side. We
ought not to have won, by any law of odds or
strategy, at Shaiba, at Ctesiphon, or Nasryah, but
we did. They won against everything, and now
the luck has turned. They have brought Indian
troops to fight on holy soil for things that mean
nothing to them. They have been hopelessly out-
numbered by the Turks. They have been starved
of everytliing, from food to letters, not to speak
of high explosives. They have been through the
most ghastly heat and the most cruel cold, and they
are still cheerful. I have never seen a more friendly
lot than these men here. They have always got
something cheerful to say when you rneet them.
The weather has changed and it's very fine, with a

THE TIGEIS 215

beautiful wind and clear skies, but there are no
scents, like in Gallipoli, of thyme and myrtle.
It's a limitless bare plain, green and sometimes
brown mud, covered by an amazing mixture of
men and creatures : horses and mules and buffaloes,
Highlanders, Soudanese and Devons, Arabs and
Babus. Camp fires spring up, somehow, at night
by magic. We generally have a bombardment
most days, but no shells round us.

Monday, April 17, 1916. H.M.8. " Waterflyr
Harris is Captain. While we were having breakfast
this morning a German aeroplane flew over and
bombed us ineffectually. Bombs fell a couple of
hundred yards away in camp, not doing any
damage, but they'll get us sometime, as we are a
fine target, three boats together.

Tuesday, April 18, 1916. H.M.8. " Waterfly."
Last night the Admiral went to Amara. He left
Jack Marriott, Philip Neville, Dick Bevan and me
here. There was no work down there and a lot
here. Last night we did well, took about 250
prisoners and the Bunds that are essential to
us. If the Turks have these and want to, they
can flood the country to the extent of making
manoeuvring impossible. There was peace yester-
day at the crimson sunset. Then after that came
the tremendous fight. Guns and flares blazed all
along the line. Now comes the news that we have
lost the Bunds and the eight guns we had taken.
The position is not clear. We are said to have
retaken most of the positions this morning.

The prisoners' morale here is much better than
in Gallipoli. I asked an Arab if he was glad to
be a prisoner. He said that he was sorry, because
his own people might think that he hadn't fought

216 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

well, but that he was glad not to have to go on
fighting for the Germans. Jack Marriott wrote
for me while I translated. The prisoners could
not or would not tell us anything much about
the condition of the river. This morning I had
an experience. I walked out through tremen-
dous heat to where the last batch of officer
prisoners were guarded in a tent. As I came
up, I heard loud wrangling, and saw the prisoners
being harangued by a fierce black-bearded officer.
I said : " Who here talks Turkish ? " and a
grizzled old Kurd said: " Some of us talk Kurdish
and some Arabic, but we aU talk Turkish." I
picked out Black-beard and took him apart from
the others, whom I saw he had been bullying.
He was a schoolmaster and a machine-gunner, and
fierce beyond words. He began by sajdng sarcas-
tically that he would give me all the information
I wanted. " You have failed at GalHpoli," he said.
" We hold you up at Salonica, and you are only
visitors at Basra. I do not mind how much I tell
you, because I know we are going to win." I
answered rather tartly that it was our national
habit to be defeated at the beginning of every war
and to win at the end, and that we should go on,
if it took us ten years. " Ah, then," he said, " you
will be fighting Russia." I did not like the way
this conversation was going, and said to him : "Do
you know the thing that your friends the Germans
have done ? They have offered Persia to Russia.
How do you like that ? " " The question is,"
he said, " how do you hke it ? " He then said that
he was sick of the word " German," that Turkey was
not fighting for the Germans, but to get rid of the
capitulations. He said they had four Austrian

H.M.S. WATEBFLY 217

motor-guns of 24 cm. coming in a few days, I
congratulated him. In the end he became more
friendly, but I got nothing out of him. One prisoner
had a series of fits : I think it was fright. He got
all right when he was given water and food. The
river has given another great sigh and risen a foot
and a half. We have crossed over from the right
to the left bank. It's a black, thundery day.
Much depends on to-day and to-night.

Good Friday, April 21, 1916. H.M.S. " Waterfly."
I have had no time to write these last days. This
morning is a beautiful morning, with a fresh north
wind. When we first came here Townshend was
supposed to be able to hold out until the 12th.
Now the 27th April is the last date. All the reports
that we have been getting from the Turks are bad.
Masses more men and guns coming up, heavy
calibre guns. Still, Townshend is getting some
food. . . . The Julnar is to go up in a few days,
when the moon is waning. It is very difiicult
to get information from the prisoners, without
running the risk of giving things away. CosteUo
is chief of the Intelligence here, a capital fellow.

The Royal Indian Marine, freed from the ob-
struction of India, seem to have done pretty well.
A lot of the boats and barges sent here have been
sunk on the way. The Admiralty goes on building
these river Fly boats Hke anything. The Mantis,
with Bernard Buxton captain, draws 5 feet and
was intended for the Danube in the days when we
were going to have taken Constantinople. On
Wednesday, the 18th, we fired a good deal from
the Waterfly. We are not well situated for firing. . . .

The Dorsets and Norfolks, the Oxfords and the
Devons, have done the most splendid fighting.

218 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Twenty-two Dorsets saved the whole situation at
Ahwaz. Harris, who is only twenty-five, has been
through all this. He was the first up here, with
Leachman. It's awfully bad luck on Townshend,
being shut up again, the second time counting
Chitral. On Wednesday there was a tremendous
fire. It sounded like a nearer Helles. The Turks
are three miles from us. They lollop down mines
that go on the bank, but this morning one was
found close by the ship.

I examined a Turk this morning, who said that
three Army Corps were coming up under Mehemed
Ali Pasha. I asked him if they could outflank us
on the Hai, to try and turn this place into a second
Kut. " That," he said, " has always been my
opinion."

Yesterday, the 20th, I went to H.Q. in the morning,
then talked to Dick and got maps revised and
borrowed a horse for the afternoon from Percy
Herbert, and got another from CosteUo for B.

Here I should explain that I had promised my
friend B., the sailor, to take him up into the front-
line trenches. He had never been in a front trench
before, and was determined to see what it was hke.

Diary. General Gillman gave B. and me
luncheon. Then B. and I rode out to the camp of
the 18th Division, where I found Brownrigg, now
become a Colonel, with malaria. I congratulated
and condoled. I asked if we could get into the
front trench, and Colonel Hillard said it was un-
healthy. B. said that didn't matter, and I asked
exactly how unhealthy. Hillard said there were
no communication trenches and we should be under
machine-gun fire at 80 yards. No rations were

CEOFTON'S POST 219

being sent up till nightfall, but still, of course, if
we wanted to go, we could. B. was passionately
anxious to go ; I was not. We walked down a
shallow communication trench, which we soon had
to leave, because of the water, and then across the
open to a beastly place called Crofton's Post, an
observation post in the flat land, with a few sandbags
and mud walls. They had dug a kind of shelter
about 6 feet deep below it. It stood about 20
feet high. The Turks were eight to nine hundred
yards away. We passed other observation posts,
these simply a ladder rising from the flat land,
and men like flies on it. It's incredible that the
Turks leave these places standing or that they allow
people to walk about in the open in the way in
which they do. Coming out, we passed a lot of
quail and partridge and some jolly wild flowers,
but also the smells of the battlefield.

After we had been at Crofton's Post a little
while, a furious bombardment of the Turks by us
began. I cursed myself for not having asked what
the plans ©f the afternoon were going to be. B.
was dehghted. Shells rushed over our heads from
all sides. I heard the scream of two premature bursts
just by us. They raised filthy, great columns of
heaving smoke. It was a wonderful picture ; the
radiant and brilliant light of the afternoon, the
desert out by the river, the gleam of the gun flashes
and the smouldering smoke columns.

The Gurkhas fought very well two nights ago,
they said here. They used up all their ammunition
and what Turkish rifles they could get and then
they fought with kukris. At one place an unfor-
tunate mistake happened. We mistook the Indians
for Turks, and we bombarded each other.

220 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

We went back almost deafened by our own guns,
B. reluctant to leave. I expected a heavy Turkish
return bombardment every minute, which would
have been unpleasant without any cover, but
beyond the ticking of a machine-gun nothing
happened. Found General Maude having tea. His
casualties have been heavy — ^nineteen officers kiUed
and wounded in the last ten days, simply trench
work, no attacks. He said it was putting a very
heavy strain on the new army.

The more I see of this fovd country, the more
convinced I am that we are a seafaring people,
lured to disaster by this river. The River Tigris
has been a disaster and a delusion to us. These
lines are untenable without two railways, one
across to Nasriyah and the other up to Bagdad.
At the present moment, we can be cut off if the
river falls or if they manage to put in guns anjrwhere
down the river and sink a couple of our boats, or
even one, in the narrows, and so block the channel.
We have got no policy. We came here and we
saw the Tigris and we said : " This is as good as
the sea, and up we wiU go," and now it wiU dry up
and we shall get left.

Lawrence arrived at Wadi on Wednesday. Had
some talk with him ; I am very glad to see him.
Got a letter from John Kennaway yesterday —
he is down at Sheikh Saad — asking me to go there.
I can get no news about Bobby Palmer. Am
afraid there is no doubt ; he must be killed ; am
very sad for his people.

Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916. H.M.8. " Green-
fly." A curious morning, with the whole of Pusht
i Kuh standing blue and clear. The last two
foreigners who visited that place were given the

SANAYAT 221

choice of embracing Islam or of being pushed over
the precipice. They chose the precipice.

Yesterday morning we attacked. The 19th
Brigade, the Black Watch, the 20th and the 28th.
We took two trenches, but were driven back to
our own. I was sent post-haste to H.Q. for news.
There was a great sand-storm and men and artillery
going through it like phantoms. Overhead it was
lurid. One could hardly breathe for the sand.
High columns of it rushed across the desert. The
repulse looks as if the end's very close. I came
back to the Admiral and was sent back again.
This time they said there was a truce, and if the
Admiral would give permission, I was to go to the
front at once. I came back and found the Admiral
and went on shore. I got a horse and rode up to
the front as fast as I could, passing many dead
and wounded. I went to General Younghusband
and asked if I co\ild be of any use to him. He
said the truce was ending. The Turks had pushed
out white flags, which was decent of them. We
had done the same. A StafiE officer came in to
say that the Turks were taking our kit, and he
wanted to fire on them. I was anxious we should
not do so without giving warning.

We discussed the possibUity of the Turks' letting
Townshend and his men come out with the honours
of war, to be on parole till peace. I said that I
could see no quid pro quo, and even if one existed,
we, here, could not use it, because of our ignorance
of the Russian situation. . . . The General said
that the water had narrowed our front to 300
yards across which to attack. The Turkish trenches
were haK-fuU of water and many of our men fell
and got their rifles filled with mud. The Turks

222 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

attacked again at once. He said there were not
many troops who would do that when a brigade
like the 19th had been through them. There's
very little left of the 19th ; beautiful men they
were. I have talked to a lot of them these last
days. I rode back on a horse that was always
falling down. In the evening I crossed the river
with the Admiral and rode up to the front with
Beach. There was sheUing going on, but nothing
came near. The river was gorgeous in the simset.
Overhead the sand-grouse flew. We talked about
the future. ... It seems to me that if we have
got to retreat 130 miles it's less bad for prestige
to do it in one go. The PoHticals' point of view
is that you should not retreat at all, but that, of
course, has got to depend on miUtary considerations.
The Soldiers' point of view is that you should not
do your retreat in one go, because you do not kill
so many of the enemy as if you fall back from one
position to another; but then, I suppose, that
cuts both ways. None of these soldiers have had
any decorations since the beginning of the war.
One of them said to me it made them unhappy,
because they felt that they hadn't done their duty.
It's an infernal shame. I asked the man who had
said this if he had any leave. He said : " Not
much ! I should have lost my job." That would
have been quite a pleasure to a lot of men. . . .
Lawrence has gone and got fever ; Nunn also
has it. The atmosphere makes shooting difficult.
Yesterday the Turks shot quite a lot at a mirage,
splashing their bullets about in the Suwekki marsh.
We often do the same. Curiously enough, I believe
that we won the battle of Shaiba by virtue of a
mirage. We saw a lot of Turks marching up against

TUm JULJSAH 223

our position, and fired at them ; these Turks were
phantoms of men miles away ; but it happened
to be the only road by which they could bring
up their ammunition, and our firing prevented that.
To-night the Julnar goes up the river on her journey.
She has less speed than they thought.

For various reasons I have barely mentioned
the Julnar until now, though she had been very
much in our thoughts. The Julnar was a river
boat, and for some days past she had been preparing
to set out upon her splendid, tragic mission. In
her lay the last hope of General Townshend and
his gallant force. Her freight was food, intended
to prolong the resistance of the garrison until the
relieving force was sufficiently S(^rong to drive
back the Turks and enter Kut. The writer of this
diary has many heroic pictures in his mind, but no
more heroic picture and no more glowing memory
than the little Julnar steaming slowly up the flaming
Tigris to meet the Turkish Army and her fate.
Her Captains were Lieut. Firman, R,N. and Lieut.-
Comdr. Cowley, R.N.V.R., of Lynch's Company,
who had spent a long life in navigating the River
Tigris.

When Admiral Wemyss called for volunteers,
every man volunteered, for what was practically
certain death. Lieut. Firman and Lieut. -Comdr.
Cowley were both killed, and both received posthu-
mous V.C.'s.

Diary. April 23rd. H.M.S. " Greenfly." We
are alongside the Mantis. I am sleeping in Firman's
cabin. He is down-stream, but he comes up
to-night. Many men badly wounded yesterday,
but all as cheerful as could be; one man with

224 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

three bullets in his stomach, full of talk and oaths.
Fifteen of the Dorsets have died in the nearest
hospital and have been buried close by.

This afternoon an Easter Service was held on
board. The Padre made a good sermon three
minutes long. It was a wonderful sight — ^the
desert covered with our graves, mirages in the
distance and the river glowing 'in the sun. At
the end of the service the Julnar arrived. Firman
is an attractive good-looking fellow. King, whom'
I met last year in Alexandretta, whither he had
marched from Bagdad, is also here. When Buxton
told the men of the hundred to one chance of the
Julnar's getting through, they volunteered to a
man, Gieve waistcoats are being served out ; the
cannon's sounding while they are loading the Julnar
and the Black Watch are playing on the bagpipes
close by. Overhead go the sand-grouse, calling
and the river and the desert wind are sighing.
It's all like a dream. . . . Even if she does get
through, I don't believe we can relieve Kut. The
Turks will have time to consolidate their position
and we shan't be sent enough men from home to
take them. If this attempt fails, I suppose we shall
fall back to Sheikh Saad. I see three points :
(1) Political. Don't retreat. (2) MiUtary. You've got
to retreat, occupying as many positions as possible,
in order to attrition the enemy. (3) If you do this
last, you give the Turks the chance of saying they
have beaten you in a number of battles. Probably
retreat as Uttle as possible is the best. A retreat
may be more disastrous to us than the loss of Kut.
While we hold Sheikh Saad, it's difficult for them
to outflank us on the right bank, and while we have
the Vali of Pusht i Kuh with us, they ought not

THE JULNAB 225

to be able to get to Ahwaz. One wonders if they
realize the supreme importance of Basra at home
and that if we no longer hold it we do not hold
the Indian Ocean.

Monday, April 24, 1916. H.M.S. "Dragonfly."
Firman came last night, and I sat next to him at
dinner. The Julnar could not start ; she starts
to-night.

I went ashore this morning and saw Leachman,
then Colonel Beach. The fllies are awful ; one black
web of them this morning ; in one's hair and eyes
and mouth, in one's bath and shaving- water, in
one's tea and in one's towel. It's a great nuisance
being without Edward and having to do every-
thing oneself, besides one's work. It destroys all
joy in war.

Tuesday, April 25, 1916. H.M.S. ''Greenfly."
A year ago to-day we landed at Anzac. To-day
is the day of the fall of Kut, though the surrender
may not be made for some time. Last night the
Julnar left. I saw old Cowley, an old friend. He
is to pilot her. He has been thirty-three years
on this river. He is a proper Englishman. He
laughed and chaffed with PhUip Neville and me
on the Julnar before starting. Firman was very
glad to have got the job, and felt the responsibility.
Everybody wanted to go. The sailors were moved.
No cheers were allowed. They pushed off, almost
stationary, into the river, that was a glory of light
with the graceful mehailahs in an avenue on both
sides of it, with masts and rigging a filigree against
the gorgeous sunset. The faint bagpipes and the
desert wind were the only music at their going. . . .
The Admiral told me to be ready to go out at any
moment. This morning Colonel Beach came aboard

16

226 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

and told me to hold myself in readiness. He pro-
posed going out to see the Turks with Lawrence
and myself. He talked about terms. It's a very
difficult thing to get terms when one side holds
all the cards. If Townshend destroys his guns,
as he must, I don't see what terms we have got.
My own opinion is that Townshend would make
better terms for himself with the Turks than we
can get for him here. It will be difficult to stop
the Arabs being shot and hung. We have got to
do our best. . . .

The Julnar has grounded above the Sinn position.
Nothing is known of what happened to the crew.

Wilfred Peek turned up here this afternoon,
having seen John Kennaway down the stream.
We have no terms to oflEer the Turks except money,
general or local peace, or the evacuation of territory.
I do not think the first is any good. We cannot
offer the second because of ourselves and of Bussia.
The third might be all right, if it was not beyond
Amarah. I hope in these negotiations we do not
meet a Prussian Turk in Khalil.

After lunch I met Captain Potter. In the last
attack this had happened : A corporal had gone
mad and, after rolling in filth, had come down the
trench with a bomb in each hand, shouting out that

he was looking for the Arabs. The parapet

was low, about shoulder-high, and there was a good
deal of shrapnel and bullets coming in. The corporal
threw the bomb into the middle of the officers'
mess, killing one and wounding the Colonel, knocking
Potter and the others out. They collared the
corporal, who had got a madman's strength. Then
the attack followed. Potter went as soon as
he recovered. They charged across 600 yards

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 227

under machine-gim fire, up to their knees in mud.
The Turks were in their third trench. The first
and the second were filled with mud. Then the
Turks ran out a white flag, which suited us very
well, as it allowed our men in the Turkish trenches
to get away, which otherwise they couldn't have
done. He thought the Turks did it because they
wanted to bring up reinforcements. He now com-
mands a battalion of 84, all that are left of 650
men. He said they had reached the limits of
human endurance. He had three officers, including
himself, left. The Black Watch had been wiped
out twice, and other regiments simply annihilated.
I told him that I thought there would be no more
attacks. He said a Turkish prisoner, a friend of
his, had said to him : " Let's have a truce and both
kill the Arabs."

Beach says there is no question of going out
to-day. i went out shooting sand-grouse.

Wednesday, April 26, 1916. H.M.S. " Mantis."
I am writing in great haste, till the sun goes down,
as the mehailahs streg-m past on a river of fire,
in the retreat that is beginning.

The news from home is good and bad. As usual,
they are desperately optimistic, but more men are
coming. We must, if we can, save the Arabs with
Townshend. The last telegrams in were pitiful
Townshend quotes military precedents and other
campaigns, and it's all mixed up with famine and
the stinks of Kut. Wilfred Peek's his A.D.C. I
am to try and get him a safe conduct to take
Townshend's stufE up to him, also one for us.
If Townshend does not make it clear that it's a
return ticket, we shall all be kept. I saw General
Lake this morning. Captain Bermester, the Chief of

228 MONS, ANZAO, AND KUT

the StafiE, Neville, Dick Bevan and Miller all went
off this morning. The Admiral is coming back. I
have received instructions about negotiations.

Friday, April 28, 1916. H.M.8. " Mantis." For
the last two days I have been standing by to go
to Kut, constantly dressing up for it and then
undressing for the heat. A wave of great heat has
come and the air is black with flies. Practically
no firing, though they tried to shell us yesterday
and an aeroplane dropped bombs near here. We
have got very little to bargain with, as far as the
Turks are concerned, practically only the exchange
of prisoners. The operations of this force are not
to be reckoned with as a bargaining asset. We
are not to retire to save Townshend. Yesterday
Townshend saw Khalil at ten a.m., whom he liked.
Khalil said that Townshend would have as great
a reception in Turkey as Osman Pasha in Russia,
but he demanded unconditional surrender, or that
Townshend should march out of Kut. This last
is equivalent to an unconditional surrender, and
Townshend's men are too weak. We are all sorry
for them.

Yesterday morning General Lake sent for me,
and talked about the Turks. I said it was quite
clear to me that the Turks would procrastinate,
if it was only from force of habit, and the end of
that must mean unconditional surrender. General
Lake was calm. He has been made responsible
for things for which other people are answerable.
Townshend has telegraphed to say that he has
only food for two more days and that Khalil has
referred to Enver for better terms. ... I still
think Townshend would get better terms for himself
than we shall get for him. He has made a des-

TOWNSHBND 229

perately gallant fight of it, and his position has not
been taken. Lack of food makes him surrender,
not force of arms. We, the relieving force, have
been checked by the Turks, but I suppose all these
men, Lake, Townshend and Nixon, will be made
scapegoats. In the last telegrams Townshend
warns us that the Turks may attack. He says he
cannot move out, and that even if he were able to
get his weak men out the Turks would not have
enough tents for them or transport to Bagdad,
and that there will be a terrible tragedy and that
a lot of sick and wounded will die, . . . We are
not in a position to insist on anything. One is
more sorry for Townshend and his men than words
can say.

Sunday, April 30, 1916. H.M.8. " Mantis." The
Events of Saturday : Yesterday morning Colonel
Beach came to the Mantis at seven and took me
off. We rode across the bridge to General Young-
husband's H.Q. NothiQg that I have ever seen
or dreamed of came up to the flies. They hatched
out until they were almost the air. They were
in myriads. The horses were half mad. The
flies were mostly tiny. They rolled up in little
balls when one passed one's hand across one's
sweating face. They were on your eyelids and
lashes and in your lips and nostrils. We could
not speak for them, and could hardly see.

We went into General Younghusband's tent.
The flies, for some reason, stayed outside. He
put a loose net across the door of the tent. They
were like a visible fever, shimmering in the burning
light all round. Inside his tent you did not breathe
them ; outside you could not help taking them in
through the nose and the mouth. We left General

230 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Younghusband and went on to the front trenches,
where we met Colonel Aylsmee. There Lawrence
joined us. We three then went out of the trenches
with a white flag, and walked a couple of hundred
yards or so ahead, where we waited, with all the
battlefield smells round us. It was all a plain,
with the river to the north and the place crawling
with huge black beetles and singing flies, that have
been feeding on the dead. After a time a couple
of Turks came Out. I said : " We have got a letter
to Khalil." This they wanted to take from us, but
we refused to give it up, and they sent an orderly
back to ask if we might come in to the Turkish lines.
Meanwhile we talked amiably. One of the Turkish
officers, a Cretan, had left school five years ago
and had been in five wars. He reckoned that he
had been in 200 attacks, not counting scraps
with brigands and comitadjis. The Turks showed
us their medals, and we were rather chagrined at
not being able to match them, but they and we
agreed that we should find the remedy for that in
a future opportunity.

Several hours passed. It was very hot. I was
hungry, having had no breakfast. Again they asked
us to give up our letter. I said that our orders
were to deliver it in person and, as soldiers, they
knew what orders were, but that Colonel Beach
would give the letter up if their CO. would guarantee
that we should see Khalil Pasha. This took a long
time. The Turks sent for a tent. A few rifle
shots went off from our lines, but Beach went back
and stopped it. The Turks sent for oranges and
water, and we ate and drank. We had to refill
these bottles from the Tigris, and up and down the
banks were a lot of dead bodies from shot-wounds

WITH THE TUEKS 231

and cholera. After some time they agreed to Beach's
proposal. We were blindfolded and we went in
a string of hot hands to the trenches of the Turks.
When it was plain going the Turk, who talked French,
called : " Franchement, en avant," and when it
was bad going, over trenches, " Yavash Dikatet."
We marched a long way through these trenches,
banging against men and corners, and sweating
something cruel. Beyond the trenches we went
for half an hour, whUe my handkerchief became a
wet string across my eyes. Then we met Bekir
Sami Bey. He was a very fine man and very jolly,
something between an athlete and old King Cole.
He lavished hospitality upon us, coffee and yoghurt,
and begged us to say if there was anything more
he could get us, while we sat and streamed with
perspiration. He told us how he had loved England
and still did. He was fierceness and friendship
incarnate. He said it was all Grey's fault, and
glorified the Crimea. Why couldn't we have stuck
to that policy ? Then, as we were going ofiE, I
said that he would not insist on our eyes being
bandaged, showing him my taut, wet rag of a pocket-
handkerchief. He shouted with laughter and said :
" No, no ; you have chosen soldiering, a very hard
profession. You have got to wear that for miles,
and you will have to ride across ditches." Then
he shook hands and patted us on the shoulder.

My eyes were bound, and I got on a horse that
started bucking because of the torture of the flies.
The Turk was angry and amused. I heard him
laughing and swearing : " This is perfectly mon-
strous. Ha, ha ! He'll be ojff. Ha, ha ! This is
a reproach to us." I was then given another horse
that was not much of an improvement, and off we

232 MONST^NZACTAND KUT

three went with a Turkish officer, Ali Shefket, and
a guard. Lawrence had hurt his knee and could
not ride. He got ofiE and walked, a Turkish officer
being left with him. Colonel Beach and I went on.
Then our eyes were unbound, though as a matter
of fact this was against the orders I had heard
given. The Turk Ali Shefket and I talked. He
knew no French. He said to me : " Formerly the '
Arabs would not take our bank-notes ;_ now they
take them. Once upon a time they would not take
medjids ; two days ago they took them. To what
do you put that down ? " I knew he meant the
fall of Kut, but it was not said maliciously. I
said that I put it down to the beautiful character
of the marsh Arabs, "yerli bourda beule" (here the
native are thus). He laughed and agreed. We
passed formidable herds of horses and mules, our
road a sand-track. The escort rode ahead of us.
The heat was very great, but we galloped. The
Turks we met thought that we were prisoners.
They saluted sometimes at strict attention, some-
times with a grin, and later our Indians were told
in return to salute the Turkish officers, who looked
at them as black as thunder.

At last we came to KhalU's camp, a single round
tent, a few men on motor cycles coming and going,
horses picketed here and there and the camp in
process of shifting. Later on, Khalil said that the
flies bored him and that he meant to camp beside
the river. Colonel Beach told me to start talk-
ing. I said to Khalil, whose face I remembered :
" Where was it that I met your Excellency last ? "
And he said : " At a dance at the British Embassy."
Khalil, throughout the interview, was polite. He
was quite a young man for his position, I suppose

WITH THE TUKKS 233

about thirty-five, and a fine man to look at— lion-
taming eyes, a squai-e chin and a mouth like a trap.
Eaazim Bey, who was also courteous, but silent,
was his C.G.S. We began on minor points. The
Turks had taken the English ladies in Bagdad.
Their husbands were sent across to Alexandretta,
where I met them last year ; some of them, worse
luck, are now prisoners again. We had Turkish
ladies at Amara and also twenty-five Turkish
civilian officials. This exchange was arranged.
They were to meet each other at Beyrout.

I went on to speak of the Julnar. He said that
there had been two killed on the Julnar. He
was afraid it was the two Captains. He was sorry.
It made Beech and me very sad. I did hope they
would have got through. Firman was a gallant
man — ^he had had forty-eight hours' leave in four
years — and old Cowley was a splendid old fellow.
Well, if you are going to be kiUed, trjdng to relieve
Townshend is not a bad way to end.

After that, I began talking of the treatment
of the Arab population in Kut. I asked Khalil
to put himself in the position of Townshend. I
said that I knew that he could not help feeling
for Townshend, whose lifelong study of soldiering
was brought to nought through siege and famine,
by no. fatdt of his own. I said that the Arabs
with Townshend had done what weak people
always do : they had trimmed their sails, and
because they had feared him, they had given him
their service. If they suffered, Townshend would
feel that he was responsible. Khalil said : " There
is no need to worry about Townshend. He's
all right." He added that the Arabs are Turkish
subjects, not British, and that therefore their fate

234 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

was irrelevant, but that their fate would depend
upon what they did in the future, not upon what
they had done in the past. We asked him for some
assurance that there would be no hanging or perse-
cution. He would not give this assurance, for
the reasons already stated, but said that it was
not his intention to do anything to the Arabs.
Then Lawrence turned up.

We discussed the question of our sick and wounded.
He said that he would send 500 of them down
the river, but that he required Turkish soldiers
for them in exchange. I said that he gained by
having sound men instead of wounded. H^ wanted
us to send boats to fetch these men. He said that
he was sending them drugs, doctors and food, and
doing what could be done. Beach asked for the
exchange of ail our prisoners in Kut against the
Ottomans that we had taken. He at first said
that he would exchange English against Turk
and Arab against Indian, because he had a poor
opinion of the fighting qualities of the last two.
I said that some of the Arabs had fought very well,
and he would gain by getting them back. He then
puUed out a list of prisoners of ours, and went
through the list of Arab surrenders, swearing. He
said : " Perhaps one of our men in ten is weak or
cowardly, but it's only one in a hundred of the Arabs
who is brave. Look, these brutes have surrendered
to you because they were a lot of cowards. What
are you to do with men like that ? You can send
them back to me if you like, but I have already
condemned them to death. I should like to have
them to hang." That ended that. We must see
that Arabs are not sent back by mistake.

He then said that he would like us to send ships

TEEMS 235

up to transport Townshend and his men to Bagdad ;
otherwise they would have to march, which would
be hard on them. He promised to let us have these
ships back again. Colonel Beach said to me, not
for translation, that this was impossible. We have
already insufficient transport. He told me to say
that he would refer this to General Lake. We then
talked about terms and the exchange of the sick
and wounded. On this, Khalil said he would refer to
Enver or Constantinople as to whether sound men at
Kut would be exchanged against the Turkish prisoners
in Cairo and India. He did not think it likely. He
was going to give us the wounded in any case, at
once. He would trust us to give their equivalent.

Guns : Townshend had destroyed the guns.
Khalil was angry and showed it. He said he had
a great admiration for Townshend, but he was
obviously disappointed at not getting the guns, on
which he had counted. He said : "I could have
prevented it by bombarding, but I did not want
to." Later, one of his officers said to me : " The
Pasha's a most honourable man ; all love him. He
was first very pleased and said that Townshend
should go free. After that something happened, I
don't know what, and now Townshend will be an
honoured prisoner at Stamboul."

Beach told me to say that we would willingly
pay for the maintenance of the civilians and
the Arabs of Kut. Khalil brushed this aside and
returned to his proposal that we should send up
boats to transport Townshend's sick and wounded
to Bagdad, Beach whispered to iue that we had
not enough ships for ourselves at the present moment
and no reserve suppUes. . , .

Then we talked of the general situation and

236 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

its difficulties. I asked him if all this business
would be possible without an armistice. Khalil
said very strongly indeed that he was entirely against
an armistice and that he wanted his assurance
given to General Lake that even if there was a
general offensive the ships carrjdng the sick and
wounded could still come and go. Beach told me
to say that we had no idea of an armistice. Khahl,
at this poiQt, grew very sleepy. He apoli)gized and
said he had had a lot of work to do. He also said
that he had seen Townshend that morning and that
he was all right, but he had slight fever.

Our final imderstanding with KJiaUl was that we
were to notify him when we were sending up boats,
so that he might clear the river. He laughed and
said that he had forgotten aU about the mines,
which we had not.

We ended with mutual comphments, and we said
good-bye to him and Kiazim Bey. As we were
leaving he called to me and said that he hoped
we should be comfortable that night and that we
were to ask for all we wanted. After more comph-
ments, we shook hands and rode away, all the Turks
saluting. I talked to Ah Shefket, who now seemed
a fast friend and said : " How angry the Germans
would be if they could see the Turks and the
Enghsh."

We rode on, and before sunset, came to the
Turkish camp. There the three of us sat down
and, as far as we could for the flies, wrote reports.

The Turks gave us their tent, though I should
have preferred to sleep out. They gave us their
beds and an excellent dinner. We all sat and
smoked after dinner for a few minutes under the
stars, with camp fires burning round us. Muezzin

THE TUEKISH CAMP 237

called from different places and the sound of flutes
and singing came through the dusk. Then Colonel
Beach decided that I had better stay and go to Kut,
where I was to meet him and Lawrence, who would
come up with the boats to take our prisoners away.
I didn't beheve that Khalil would accept this sort
of liaison business. Beach wanted to go straight
back, but would not let Lawrence or me. We
pointed out that, if he got shot in the dark by our
people, it would upset everything.

I dictated a French letter to Lawrence, asking
for permission for me to stay and go across to Kut.
I cannot think how he wrote the letter. The whole
place was one smother of smaU flies, attracted by
the candle. They put it out three times. B. and I
kept them off Lawrence while he wrote. We got
an answer at about two in the morning. Khalil
said that it was not necessary. All this happened
on April 29th.

To-day, April 30f^, We left at 4.30 this morning,
and this time rode all the way with unbandaged
eyes. We ended up on the river bank amongst
dead bodies. We walked across to our front liae
and Colonel Beach telephoned to H.Q. While he
was doing this a Turkish white flag went up and
we went out again. After several palavers, Ali
Shefket came out and said that the river was clear
of mines. Beach and Lawrence went back to H.Q.

Our boat could go up if it arrived by 2 o'clock
in the afternoon. I, with the Cretan, the man of
a hundred fights, Ali Shefket and others, went across.
A fierce bearded Colonel came out, arrogant and
insolent, talking German. He boasted that he
knew Greek, but when I talked to him in Greek, he
could not answer. He then harangued me in bad

238 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

German, talking rot. I said, in Turkish : " Neither
you nor I can talk good German, therefore let us
talk Turkish." " Yes," said the other Turks; " it's
a much better language."

The ship tarried. At 5 o'clock in the evening
she was in sight, but she could not have arrived
for another hour. It was decided that we could do
nothing that night and that she would have to be
put ofE imtil next day. A monstrous beetle, the
size of half a crown, crawled up my back. The
Turks were as horrified as I.

Monday, May 1, 1916. H.M.S. "Mantis." I came
back last night. I saw General Lake this morning
to report. I think Khalil is going to play the game,
but he has got something up his sleeve. A letter
has come in from him. The ships, he said, could
go. He wanted boats to send the prisoners to
Bagdad. He was answered by General Money
that His Excellency would understand that we
ourselves needed all our boats. Beach went up
this morning with two boats, but they stopped him
at No Man's Land.

Tuesday, May 2, 1916. H.M.S. "Mantis." Last

night I went on the P to go to Kut, with a rather

tiresome Padre. It rained and blew in the night,
and was very uncomfortable on deck. I got up
at four, and we started soon after. They opened the
bridge of boats for us. A launch followed for me,
for I was to get off before entering neutral territory.

At the neutral territory I found white flags and
an Indian Major, who was tired and nervous. All
the way up the river there had been a curious
feeling of expectancy and uncanniness ; the Indians
looked at us, shading their eyes from the rising sun,
and our own troops stared. There was an uncom-

A BKBAK IN THE TRUCE 239

fortable, eerie feeling in the air. The Major said
the Turks refused to allow the boats to go on. I
telephoned to Colonel Beach, who was leaving H.Q.
He told me to do the best I could. ... I took a
white flag and went out into No Man's Land and
found the man I had talked to before, the Cretan's
brother. I asked what aU this meant. This was
neither war nor peace. He said that it was our
feUows, who had been shooting on the right bank,
and there was quite enough shooting while we talked
to make one feel uncomfortable. I said that KhaUl
had given his • word that the boats could go up,
even if there was an ofifensive. This was telephoned
to KJiaUl. Our feUows began loosing off with a
machine-gun. The beastly Colonel and the Cretan
then came out to say that they had telephoned,
and later the Cretan came again, alone, to say
that our boats could not go through until the
others had returned from Kut. He said it might
not be necessary to send them up to Kut. We
sat and talked in the great heat. I have given
AK Shefket Bobby Palmer's photograph and have
asked him to make enquiries. He sent it back to
me by the Cretan, who read me out what Ali Shefket
had written me. It was to say that Bobby Palmer
was kUled. He spoke very kindly and very sadly.
I am so sorry for his family.

I went back very tired and found a lot of men
making up burying parties which, reluctantly, I
sent back again. A lot of the bodies on the river
bank look as if they died of cholera. By the way,
we have had a hundred and fifty cases in the last
three days. Then I shaved on the deck of the launch,
while the Turks looked on in the distance. Then I
went and telephoned from the front line to Beach.

240 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT ;

He told me to bring all the four boats back, which I
did. The only news is that the Turks have dug
in below us near Sheikh Saad.

Wednesday, May 3, 1916. H.M.S." Mantis." You
foul land of Miesopotamia ! This morning bodies
raced by us on the stream and I spent most of the
day walking in the ruin of battle. I was sent
for by General Gorringe and General Brown. They
wanted to know why our boats had not come down
from Kut. They said that the Turks had been
shooting on the right and sent out white-flag parties,
200 men strong, to bury the dead. I said I
thought it would be all right about the ships but I
would go and see Kbalil. The fact that they did not
want us to send more ships showed that it was all
right, but I thought they would probably like to
nag us into doing something indiscreet, and asked
the General if he would give orders that there should
be no firing except under instructions, as long as
they had our hostages. He sent me off to see the
Turks.

I rode fast through suffocating heat, with an
Indian orderly. At the bridge I found om* two
ships, the Sikhim and the Shaba, which had come
through from Kut. They were banking above
the bridge, which was being mended. This altered
the whole situation, since the General had sent me
out to complain that they had not been let through,
and I galloped back. After a talk at H.Q., it was
decided that I was only to thank Khalil.

I jumped the trenches and finally arrived at the
main trench, where my horse stared down at a
horrified circle, lunching. The circle said that no
horses were allowed there and that none had ever
been there, and that my horse, or rather Costello's,

AN INCIDENT 241

would be shot immediately by the Turks. So I
went to General Peebles, who was lunching farther
along in the same trenches, and he had her sent
back. I then got a white flag and walked out. . . .
I met a couple of Turks. They wanted us to send
up two ships to-morrow, and were quite agreeable.
I asked them, as a favour, not to send out again
the Colonel who talked German, as I couldn't stand
him, and they said they wouldn't.

It was blazing hot ; a Turkish officer and I sat
out between the lines.

There is one incident not recorded in the diary
that is, perhaps, worth mentioning, as it had a
curious result that will find its place in the sequel
to this journal, if it is ever published. On one of
the occasions when I was talking to the Turks
between the lines, a general fire started from the
British and the Turkish trenches. The Turks, for
the honour of their country, and I, for the honour
of mine, pretended to ignore this fire, and we con-
tinued to discuss our business, but in the end the
fire refused to be ignored, and, with loud curses, we
fell upon the ground and there attempted to con-
tinue the discussion. I suggested to the Turks
that the whole proceeding was lacking in dignity
and that it would be better for each to retire to
their own trenches and resume negotiations when
circumstances were more favourable.

Next time I returned I was informed that one
of the Turks had been hit whilst returning. I
naturally said how sorry I was, and that I hoped
they would not think it was a case of mala fides,
as it might have happened to one of us, and wrote
a note explaining my regret.

17

242 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Diary. It was curious and bitter sitting in that
peaceful field talking amicably with the Turks
between the lines, with maize round us. The river
murmured and the larks were singing, while the
stiflE clay held the knee-deep prints, like plaster
of Paris, of the Black Watch and the others, who
had charged across that foul field, when it had been
a trap and a bog.

Thursday, May 4:, 1916. H. M.S. ''Mantis." Very
tired to-day. I rode back last night from the Turks,
very fast. The flies made it impossible to go slow,
horses couldn't breathe. At the bridge, I found
that the traffic was going the other way and had
to hold up an unfortunate brigade to get across,
hating to do it.

I met Green Armitage, who had just come from
Kut. He had got Townshend's terriers, who barked
like mad. He said that there were three Turkish
officers on board the Sikhim, who were asking for
me. I didn't know what to do, as I wanted to
go to H.Q,, but dashed on board and found they
were Ali Shefket and Mehmed Jemal and Salahedin
Bey, inspector to the Agricultural Bank of Smyrna.
Our people on board wanted me to stay. I told
them I would come back. I saw the sick and
wounded Indians being carried away, terribly
emaciated. I reported at H.Q., where, appar-
ently, half a dozen entirely contradictory orders
were being prepared for me. I then went back
in a launch to the Turks, who were reported
to be taking notes of our position from the bridge.
On the Sikhim I found crowds of our officers with
the Turks and a general joUification going on. I did
not understand how or why they had been allowed
to come down. All the Intelligence came along to

A TQEKISH INVASION 243

Bee what the Turks could tell them. I was fed-up
with the whole business, and disliked the Turks
being on deck. I said to them : "Of course, it's
a pleasure to have you here, as guests, but we would
much rather give you hospitality in London, for
there we can show you everything, and, unfortu-
nately, that's not the case here. So in future, if
you please, Turkish oiBficers will not accompany the
boats down." They agreed to that.

The same tiresome Padre came bumbhng up
again. I think he wanted to go to Kut for the ad-
venture, and I had no sympathy, as he would have
meant another mouth to feed. The Turks made
no particular objection to his going, but they said
there was already a clergyman there, so I told the
Padre he could go if he Hked, but that if he went
he ought to stay and let the other chaplain come
back, as the other had had all the hardships of the
siege. He thought I was brutal, but cleared out
and gave no more trouble. It seems to me, however,
that he runs a fair risk, hke the rest of us, of being
made a prisoner.

I wish the Admiral was here. The Turks on
board said that they had hung seven Arabs at Kut,
which made me furious. I said that Khalil had
said that he had no intention of doing that. The
Turks said that these men were not natives, but
vagabonds. . . .

Then they talked about the future. I said it
would not be easy for Turkey to dissociate herself
from Germany, even if they wanted to. They
rephed : " How long did it take the Bulgars and
Serbs to quarrel ? " They said Khalil had sent
messages, and I arranged that if there was any
hitch I should be able to get straight through.

244 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

I did not sleep, much. This morning I went up
with them to Sanayat, where Husni Bey took
their place. Then I came back by launch to the
bridge and found a motor, which I took to H.Q.

At dinner to-night Renter's came in, and the
doctor, in a perfectly calm voice, read out to us
that there now seemed some chance of checking
the rebellion in Ireland. Somebody said : "Don't
be a fool. Things are bad enough here. Kut's
fallen and we shall probably be prisoners. Don't
invent worse things." The doctor said : " It's an
absolute fact," and read it out again. Then some-
body said: "Those cursed Irish." Then an Ulster-
man leapt to his feet and said : " You would insult
my country, would you ? " Then there was a
general row. After that, everything seemed so
utterly desperate that there was nothing to be done
but to make the best of things, and we had an
extremely cheerful dinner. We must have missed
a lot of news. Let's hope this Irish business is the
bursting of a boil. I am more afraid of the treatment
than the disease.

Friday, May 5, 1916. H.M.8. " Mantis." Vane
Tempest came back from Kut with unpleasant
stories. He said that our officers had been looted
at the point of the bayonet by the Arabs. He had
seen four men hanging and one man hanged. This
was a curious incident. This man, as he was going
to execution, threw Vane Tempest his teshih (his
rosary), the ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God.
Vane Tempest had stiU got it. It means " I com-
mend my cause to you. Take up my quarrel."
I told Vane Tempest if he was superstitious he
ought never to part with it.

Now there is a new position created. They can

SHEIKH SAAD 245

float down all their guns and stores. There is a
fight coming, but I wonder where. Eight hundred
Turks and Arabs below Sheikh Saad, with three
guns. The country is up behind us and we have
only half a day's provisions in reserve. The guns
are booming away behind us. It's going to be
very hard to hold this position. I wish Edward
was here, and hope he is all right, with my kit. I
want it badly, but I got some stufE from Percy
Herbert this morning. We agreed that we had a
most excellent chance of being cut oS. . . . One
is sorry for these men here. They are starved in
every way, ammunition excepted. They are not
even given cigarettes and have to pay six times
their price to the Arabs. Last night the Arabs were
looting all over the place. A man tqld me this
morning that a sick officer in the 21st Brigade
found five Arabs in his tent and lost everything.
Lucky for him that was all he lost.

Saturday, May Q, 1916. H. M.S. "Mantis." Sheikh
Saad. Yesterday my typewriter broke. A joUy
mechanic more or less repaired it and refused money.
" It's all for one purpose," he said. H.Q. suddenly
determined to come down to Sheikh Saad in the
afternoon. General Gorringe and General Ratcliffe
went off, strafing like mad. Then the Mantis
sailed. I found Edward on board the Blosse Lynch,
with 200 " sea-gulls," as he called the sepoys.
He was very upset about the Irish news, but glad
to have found me.

I walked at night with Bernard Buxton into
the Arab village to find H.Q. A curious sight:
Devons and Somersets, Gurkhas, Arabs and frogs
all mixed up together. The Somersets were very
glad to meet a friend.

246 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

This morning, after going through the evidence
with the other officers about Bobby Palmer, I
sent a telegram to Lord Selbome. They did not
doubt the evidence of the Turks that he was killed.

This morning I walked along the banks of the
Tigris, whUe bodies floated down it. After a time
I found the 4th Devons and John Kennaway,
Acland Troyte and the rest, also a lot of people
from home. Promised them cigarettes and that
I would get messages home for them. The latest
out were a bit depressed and complained of the
shortage of food. Their camp isn't too bad. Three
miles away, one can see Lot's Tomb, with generally,
they say, a Turkish patrol on it. Sheikh Saad is
supposed, J. K. says, to be Sodom. If you took
our troops away, another dose of brimstone would
do it and its inhabitants a lot of good.

Then I saw Captain of the Indian Transport.

He was miserable at the way that his men were
treated. He said : (I) The drivers did not receive
pay equal to sepoys, nor did they receive allowances,
which mountain battery drivers and ammunition
column drivers did receive. The work the trans-
port drivers did was equally dangerous and more
onerous. (2) There were no spare men. A transport
driver went sick and the next man had to look
after his animals. (3) They got no fresh clothes.
Their clothes were in rags. (4) They had 21-lb.
tents for four men. In a hot or a cold climate this
is unhealthy ; very bad here. Also they have only
one flap, so later on they'll be bound to get sunstroke.

(5) They do not get mUk, cigarettes or tobacco.

(6) They get no presents, such as the other Indian
regiments have received. (7) The treatment of
transport officers is not equal to that of a sepoy

INDIAN TKANSPORT 247

officer. Vide Subadar Rangbaz Khan, about thirty
years' service. Becommended with many others.
No notice taken. Only two recommendations
given, those for actual valour. This man, if he
had been with his relations in the cavalry, would
probably have done less good work, but would have
been covered with medals.

I walked back through rain, with frogs every-
where, a plague. It's a pity we can't get our men
to eat them. One can't even teach the officers to
eat them. John said the Arabs sniped them most
nights, but they were well and not too uncomfortable.
Jack Amory was there, but I didn't see him. He
was out shooting sand-grouse.

Sunday, May 7, 1916. H.M.8. "Mantis." Harris
came up last night. He said all was quiet down the
river. Subhi Bey, with a good many troops, had
tried to cut us off at Kumait, but the floods were
out. He said that last year Cowley prophesied
that when the hot weather came the river would
fall and that five-eighths of our transport would
be useless. Cowley was generally right. If he
was wrong then, he will probably be right now.
Harris had been fishing the other day, when two
of the Devons suddenly appeared, naked, beside
him. They had swum the river, being carried a
mUe and a half down, and intend to swim it again.
It's very dangerous. They are wonderful fellows.
I am on the Waterfly now.

Early this morning a telegram arrived to say
the Corps Commander wanted me at once. I
spoke on the telephone to H. C. Cassel said : " Our
men have fired on the Turks and they have collared
the Sikhim. You must come and get her out. . . .
I transferred to the Waterfly and came up with

248 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

Harris. I knew this would happen. What, appar-
ently, happened was that the Turks fired four shots
at the Sikhim. The Turkish ofl&cer was angry,
and rigid orders had been issued to the Turks not
to fire again. Then our men had opened fire. . . .
But they don't all tell the same story. ... I have
now got five contradictory orders from H.Q.

Tuesday, May 9, 1916, Fekthiah. The last
boatload of wounded is coming down and the
truce will, I suppose, end. The Sikhim has made
her last journey, A telegram arrived from the
Admiral ordering me to go at once to Bushire. I
am to get on board the Lawrence, sailing the 12th
from Basra, and join him at Bushire. . . . (Here
indescribable things follow.) I went round and said
good-bye to everybody.

There is a lot of cholera. General Rice died last
night. There are many bodies floating down the
river. It's tremendously hot, I have just seen
Williams, thei doctor of the Sikhim. He says the
Turks have been good throughout. The Arabs
have looted at the beginning, but this has been
put an end to. It's not going well with the Arabs.
. , , We must largely depend on them for suppUes.

Wednesday, May 10, 1916, H.M.S. "Mantis" I
was to have left on S.l, but when it was apparent
that it would not start that night, I went off to
the Mantis. Buxton telephoned from Sheikh Saad
that he would take me to Amara, if I could get
there by 4.30 a,m, I came down with Colonel
James, Many bodies in the river and much cholera
at Wadi, Our men lack every mortal thing. I
should like to send a telegram like this home, but
don't expect I should be allowed to: "Prom my
experience of this country, I see that, unless certain

A TELEGEAM 249

action is taken immediately, consequences that
are disastrous to the health of the troops must
follow. All realize here that the past economy of
the Government of India is responsible for our
failure {vide Sir W. Meyer's Budget speech), Unless
this is realized in England and supplies taken out
of the hands of the Government of India, altogether,
or liberally supplemented from home and Egypt,
the troops wiU suffer even more during this summer
than last year. Condensed milk and oatmeal are
essential to the troops. India cannot provide these
under three months, by which time we shall have
sustained great and unnecessary losses. Supplies
of potatoes and onions wfll cease at the end of
this month. If cold storage is found to be impossible,
a substitute, e.g. dried figs, must be found. India
cannot provide these substitutes in time. Suffi-
cient ice-machines and soda-water machines are
as essential to prevent heat-stroke in the trenches
as to cure heat-stroke in the hospitals. India,
unless ordered to commandeer these from clubs,
private houses, etc., cannot provide them. Many
Indian troops are in 21 -lb. tents, single flap, one
tent to four men. Numbers of these will get sun-
stroke. If you mean to hold this country, you
can't do it on the lines of Sir W. Meyer. A railway
is essential. A fall in the river would render hialf
our present transport useless, above Kurna. Many
of the troops here are young and not strong. If a
disaster to their health, which, in its way, is as
grave as the fall of Kut, and due to the same reason,
lack of transport, is to be prevented, supplies must
be taken in hand from England and Egypt."

Thursday, May 11, 1916. H.M.S. "Mantis."
Amara. Yesterday was one of the most beautiful

250 MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT

days imaginable. We came very fast down the
river, with a delicious wind against us. On both
banks there were great herds of sheep, cattle and
nice-looking horses. Every horse here is blanketed
by the Arabs, only our horses not blanketed.
The Arabs vary a lot in looks. One man, towing
a bellam, glancing back over his shoulder, was
the picture of a snarling hyenjf. A great many
of them were handsome.

We came to Amara in the evening and found a
lot of cholera. I went to the bazaar and bought
what I could for J. K. and his mess, and cigarettes
for the men, but couldn't get fishing tackle.
Amara looked beautiful in the evening — fine,
picturesque Arab buildings, and palm groves and
forests up and down both sides of the lighted river.
At night we anchored to a palm and slept well,
in spite of great gusts of wind occasionally, which
roared through the palm forests, and bursts of
rifle fire on the banks by us, at Arabs, who
were stealing or sniping us. Jackals cried in a
chorus.

To-day the river has been enchanted. Long
processions of delicately built mehailahs, perfectly
reflected in the water, drifted down, often com-
manded by our own officers. The river turned into
a glowing, limpid lake, almost without a land horizon.
We passed the Marmariss, which the Turks fought
until she caught fire. The Arab villages were half
afloat. There was a look of peace everywhere, and
the flood is too high to allow an attack on us. There
was a glorious, dangerous sunset. The sky was
a bank of clouds that caught fire and glowed east
and west over the glowing water. The palms
looked like a forest raised by magic from the river.

TMii JiJNJJ 251

It was like the most magnificent Mecca stone on
the most gigantic scale.

Pursefield, whose last night it is in Mesopotamia,
asked me how much I wanted to get on. I said I
couldn't see the people I wanted to that night, so
it was the same to me if we got in after dawn next
morning. We tied up in mid-stream, to avoid
being sniped. No flies at all. Sherbrooke and I
talked after dinner.

Friday, May 12, 1916. H.M.S. "Lawrence." The
Army Commander and General Money were both
away, and I only spent twenty minutes at Basra.
I saw BUI Beach and Captain Nunn and wrote a
line to Gertrude Bell and George Lloyd. I wish
I could have seen them both. The Silchim is there,
in quarantine, her Red Cross looking like a huge
tropical flower. I got on to the Lawrence. Cleanli-
ness and comfort and good food. I wish the others
could have it too.

JPWnteJ in Groat Britain by

UNWIN BBOTHBES, UMITBD
WOKINO 4ND LONDON

Telegrams : "Scholarly, London." . 41 and 43 Maddox Street,

Telephone : 1883 Mayfair. ' gond Street, London, W. i.

October, 19 1 9.

Mr. Edward Arnold's

■AUTUMN
ANNOUNCEMENTS, 19 19.

JOHN REDMOND'S LAST YEARS.

. By STEPHEN GWYNN.
With Portrait. 1 vol. Demy 8wo. i6s. net.

The "History of John Redmond's Last Years," by Stephen
pwynn, is in the first, place an historical document of unusual
importance. It is an account of Irish political events at their
most exciting period, written by an active member of Mr.
Redmond's party who was in the confidence of his chief. The
preliminary story of the struggle with the House of Lords and
the prolonged fight over Home Rule is described by a keen
student of parliamentary action. For the period which began
with the war Mr. Gwynn has had- access to all Redmond's papers.
He writes of Redmond's effort to lead Ireland into the war from
the standpoint of a soldier as well as a member of parliament.
The last chapter gives to the world, for the first time, a full
account of the Irish Convention which sat for eight months
behind closed doors, and in which Redmond's career reached its
dramatic catastrophe.

The interlocking of varying chains of circumstance, the parlia-
mentary struggle, the rise of the rival volunteer forces, the raising
of Irish divisions, the rebellion and its sequel, and, finally, the
effect of bringing Irishmen together into conference — all this is
vividly pictured, with increasing detail as the book proceeds. In
the opening, two short chapters recall the earlier history of the
Irish party and Redmond's part in it.

But the main interest centres in the character of Redmond
himself. Mr. Gwynn does not work to display his leader as a
hero without faults and incapable of mistakes. He shows the
mao as he knew him and worked under him, traces his career
through its triumphs to reverses, and through gallant recovery to
final defeat. A great man is made familiar to the reader, in his

2 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

wisdom, his magnanimity, and his love of country. The tragic
waste of great opportunities is portrayed in a story which has the
quality of drama in it. ■ Beside the picture of John Redmond
himself there is sketched the gallant and sympathetic figure of his
brother, who, after thirty-five years of parliamentary service, died
with the foremost wave of his battalion at the Battle of Messines.

A MEDLEY OF MEMORIES.

By the Rt. Rev. Sir DAVID HUNTER BLAIR, Bart.
With Illustrations, i vol. Demy 8w. i6s. net.

Sir David Hunter Blair, late Abbot of Fort Augustus, in the first
part of these fifty years' recollections, deals with his childhood and
youth in Scotland, and gives a picture full of varied interest of
Scottish country house life a generation or more ago. Very vivid,
too, is the account of early days at what was then the most
famous private school in England ; and the chapter on Eton under
Balston and Hornby gives thumbnail sketches of a great many
Etonians, school-contemporaries of the writer's, and bearing names
afterwards very well known for one reason or another. Eton was
followed by Magdalen ; and undergraduate life in the Oxford of 1 872
is depicted with a light hand and many amusing touches. There
was foreign travel after the Oxford days ; and two of the most
pleasantly descriptive chapters of the book deal with Rome in
the reign of Pius IX. and Leo XIII., both of which Pontiffs the
author served as Private Chamberlain. There is much also that
is fresh and interesting in the section treating of the lives and
personalities of some of the great English Catholic families of
by-gone days.

Sir David entered the Benedictine Order at the age of twenty-
five ; and the latter half of the book is concerned with his life as
co-founder, and member of the community of, the great I^ighland
Abbey of Fort Augustus, of which he rose later to be the second
abbot. The intimate account given in these pages of the life of a
modern monk will be new to most readers, who will find it very
interesting reading. The writer's monastic experiences embrace
not only his own beautiful home in the Central Highlands, but
Benedictine life and work in England, in Belgium, Germany and
Portugal, and in' South America. One of the most novel and
attractive chapters in the book is that dealing with' the work of
the Order in the vast territory of Brazil.

The volume is illustrated with an excellent portrait, and with
some clever black-and-white drawings, the work of Mr. Richard
Anson, one of the author's religious brethren, and a member of
the Benedictine community at Caldey Abbey, in South Wales.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 3

WITH THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION.

By Major M. H. DONOHOE,

Army Intelligence Corps.
Special Correspondent of the " Daily Chronicle."

With numerous Illustrations and Map. Demy 8w. i6s. net.

Among the many " side-shows " of the Great War, few are so
difficult for the average reader to understand as the operations in
Northern Persia, an offshoot of the Bagdhad venture, which had
for their object the policing of the warlike tribes in an area
almost unknown to Europeans, and included the various attempts
to reach and hold Baku, and so get command of the Caspian and
Caucasia.

The story of these operations — carried out by little, half-
forgotten bodies of troops, mainly local levies who broke at the
critical moment and left their British officers and N.C.O.'s to
carry on alone — is one of the most amazing of the whole War,
and comprises many episodes that recall the most stirring events
of the Empire's pioneering days.

By happy chance, Major M. H. Donohoe, the famous War
Correspondent, whose work for the Daily Chronicle in all the
wars of the past twenty years is well known, was in this part
of the world as a Major on the Intelligence Staff, work for
which his knowledge of men and languages off the beaten tract
peculiarly fitted him. He has written the story of these opera-
tions as he saw them, chiefly as a member of the Staff of the
Military Mission under General Byron, known officially as the
"Baghdad Party," and unofficially as the "Hush-Hush Brigade,"
which set forth early in 1918 to join the Column under General
Dunsterville. Though there is little of fighting in the story, the
book gives an admirable picture of the Empire's work done faith-
fully under difficulties, and glimpses of places and peoples that
are almost unknown even to the most venturesome traveller.
Indeed, it is largely as a book about an unknown land that this
volume will attract, together with its little pen-portraits of men
and little pen-pictures of adventures, that Kipling would love.

A PHYSICIAN IN FRANCE.

By Major-General Sir WILMOT HERRINGHAM,
K.C.M.G., C.B.,

Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital ; Consulting Physician
TO THE Forces Overseas.

I vol. Demy %vo. 15s. net.
How the war, as seen at close quarters, struck a man eminent
IB another profession than that of arms is the distinguishing
feature of this volume of personal impressions. It is not, how-

4 Mr. Edward Ar.nold's Autumn Announcements.

ever, merely the outcome 'of a few weeks' sojourn or " trip to the
trenches," with one eye on an expectant public, for the author
has four times seen autumn fade into winter on the flat country-
side of Flanders, and, when the war ended, was still at his post
rendering invaluable services amidst unforgettable scenes. The
author's comments on the day-to-day happenings are distinguished
by a tone that is at once manly, reflective, and good-humoured.
Medical questions are naturally prominent, but are dealt with
largely in a manner that should interest the layman at the present
time. Sir Wilmot was with Lord Robetts when he died. A very
pleasing feature of the book is the constant revelation of the
author's love of nature and sport, and his happy way of introducing
such topics, together with descriptions of the country around him,
makes a welcome contrast to the stern events which form the
staple material of the book. There are some very amusing stories.

LONDON MEN IN PALESTINE.

By ROWLANDS COLDICOTT.
With maps, i vol. Demy 8w. 12s. 6d. net.

This book embraces so much more than the ordinary war story
that we have a peculiar difficulty in describing it in a few chosen
words.

The curtain lifts the day after the battle of Sheria, one of the
minor fights in General Allenby's first campaign — those move-
ments of troops which came only to a pause with the capture
of Jerusalem. Gaza has just been taken. You are introduced to
one of the companies of a London battalion serving in the East,
of which company the author is commander. The reading of a few
lines, the passing of a few moments, causes you (such is the power of
right words) to be attached to that company and to move in imagina-
tion with it across the dazzling plain. When you have tramped a few
miles you begin to realise, perhaps for the first time, the heat and
torment of a day's march in Philistia. It is not long before you
feel that you, too, are adventuring with the toiling soldiers ; with
them you wonder where the halting place will be, what sort of
bivouac you are likely to hit upon. By this time you will have
met the officers — Temple, Trobus, Jackson — and are coming to
have a nodding acquaintance with the men. Desire to compass
the unknown, and sympathetic interest in the experiences of a
company of your own country-men, Londoners footing it in a
foreign land, now takes you irresistibly into the very heart of the
tale, and you become one with the narrator. With him you
wander among the ruins of Gaza, pass into southern Palestine, and

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 5

come to the foot-hills of Judea. With him you slowly become
conscious that the long series of marches is planned to culminate
in an assault upon Jerusalem. Now you are part of a dusty
cglumn winding up mto Judea by the Jerusalem road, looking
hour by hour upon those natural phenomena that suggested the
parables. " London Men in Palestine " brings all this home to
you as if you were a passer-by. Next, the massing of troops
about the Holy City is described, and you are given a distant view
of the city itself. A chapter follows that describes the coming of
the rains. Then you spend a night in an old rock-engendered
fortress- village while troops pass through to the attack, the storm
still at its height. A chapter follows that tells of a crowded day —
too complex and full of incident here to be described. The book ,
closes with an exciting description of a fight on the Mount of Olives.

MONS, ANZAC, AND KUT.

By an.M.P.
I vol. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.

The writer of these remarkable memoirs, whose anonymity will
not veil his identity from his friends, is a man well known, not
only in England, but also abroad, and the pages are full of the
writer's charm, and gaiety of spirit, and " courage of a day that
knows not death." Day by day, in the thick of the most stirring
events in history, he jotted down his impressions at fjrst hand,
and although parts of the diary cannot yet be published, enough
is given to the world to form a graphic and very human history.

'Our author was present at the most critical part of the Retreat
from Mons. He took part in the dramatic defence of Landrecies,
and the stand at Compiegne. Wounded, and a prisoner, he
describes his experiences in a German hospital and his subsequent
recapture by the British during the Marne advance.

The scene then shifts to Gallipoli, where he was present at the
immortal first landing, surely one of the noblest pages of our
history. He took part in the fierce fighting at Suvla Bay, and,
owing to his knowledge of Turkish, he had amazing experiences
during the Armistice arranged for the burial of the dead.

Later, the author was in Mesopotamia, where he accompanied
the relieving force in their heroic attempt to save Kut. On
several occasions he was sent out between the lines to conduct
negociations between the Turks and ourselves.

" Mons, Anzac, and Kut "... A day and a day will pass,
before the man and the moment meet to- give us another book
like this. We congratulate ourselves that the author survived to
write it.

6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

THE STRUGGLE IN THE AIR.

-, 1 9 14-19 1 8.

By Major CHARLES C. TURNER (late R.A.F.).

Assoc. Fellow R.Aer.Soc, Cantor Lectures on Aeronautics, 1909. Author of
"Aircraft of To-day," "The Romance of Aeronautics," and (with
GusTAv Hamel) of "Flying: Some Practical Experiences,"
Editor of "Aeronautics," etc.,; etc., etc.

With Illustrations, i vol.. Demy 8vo. 15s. net.

Major Turner served in the flying arm throughout the
great conflict, chiefly as an instructor of officers of the Royal
Naval Air Service, and then of the Royal Air Force in the
principles of flight, aerial navigation, and other subjects. He did
much experimental work, made one visit to the Front, and was
mentioned in dispatches. The Armistice found him in the position
of Chief Instructor at No. 2 School of Aeronautics, Oxford.

The classification of this book explains its scope and arrange-
ment. The chapters are as follows :

Capabilities of Aircraft ; Theory in 1914; The flight to France
and Baptism of Fire ; Early Surprises ; Fighting in the Air,
1914-1915; 1916; 1917; 1918: Zeppelins and the Defence;
Night Flying ; The Zeppelin Beaten ; Aeroplane Raids on
England; Bombing the Germans; Artillery Observation ; Recon-
naissance and Photography ; Observation Balloons ; Aircraft and
Infantry; Sea Aircraft; Heroic Experimenters; Casualties in
the Third Arm ; The Robinson Quality.

CAUGHT BY THE TURKS.

By FRANCIS YEATS-BROWN.

I vol. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. net.

This book contains a full measure of adventure and excitement.
The author, who. is a Captain in the Indian Cavalry, was serving
in the Air Force in Mesopotamia in 1915, and was captured
through an accident to the aeroplane while engaged in a
hazardous and successful attempt to cut the Turkish telegraph
lines north and west of Baghdad, just before the Battle of
Ctesiphon. Then came the horrors of the journey to Constanti-
nople, during which the " terrible Turk " showed himself in his
worst colours ; but it was in Constantinople that the most thrilling
episodes of his captivity had their origin. The story of the
Author's first attempt to escape (which did not succeed) and of
his subsequent lucky dash for freedom, is one of intense interest,
and is told in a most vivid and dramatic way.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 7

JOHN HUGH ALLEN

OF THE GALLANT COMPANY

A Memoir by his Sister INA MONTGOMERY.

With Portrait, i vol. Demy 8fo. los. 6d. net.

This book is the life-story of a young New Zealander who was
killed in action at the Dardanelles in June, 1915. It is told mainly
in his ov/n letters and diaries— which have been supplemented, so
far as was needful, with the utmost tact and discretion by his
sister — and falls naturally into three principal stages. Allen spent
four very strenuous years, 1907-1911, at Cambridge, where he
occupied a prominent position among his contemporaries as an
active member, and eventually President of the Union. Though
undergraduate politics are not usually taken very seriously by the
outside world, yet this side of Allen's Cambridge career has an
interest far transcending the merely personal one. Possessed, as
he was, of remarkable gifts, which he had cultivated by assiduous
practice as a speaker and writer, and passionately interested in
all that concerns the British Empire, and the present and future
relations between the United Kingdom and the Overseas
Dominions, his record may well stand as representative of the
attitude of the Bite of the New Zealand youth towards these vital
matters in the period just preceding the war.

After Cambridge, he returned for a time to New Zealand, where
he resolved to make his permanent home, but came back to
England in December, 1913, to complete his legal studies and get
called to the bar, and was still in England when the war broke
out. Consequently the second stage is the story of seven months'
experience as a lieutenant in the 13th Battalion of the Worcesters,
and his letters of this period give an attractive, and intensely
graphic account of the making of the new army. Finally, he was
despatched, with a few other selected officers, to the Dardanelles,
arrived on May 25th at Cape Helles, and was attached to the
Essex regiment. The last stage, brief, glorious, and terrible,
lasted only twelve days but, brief as it was, he had time to draw
an enthralling picture of the unexampled horrors of this particular
phase of trench-warfare. The book is steeped, from beginning
to end, in a sober but fervent enthusiasm; and the cult of the
Empire, in its noblest form, has seldom been as finely exemplified
as by the life and death of John Allen.

8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements,

NOJEL ROSS AND HIS WORK.

Edited by HIS PARENTS.

I vol. Demy %vo. los. 6d. net.

A series of charming sketches by a young New Zealander, who
died in December, 1917, on the threshold of a brilliant literary
career. Noel Ross was one of those daring Anzacs who made
the landiiig on Gallipoli. Wounded, in the early days of the
terrible fighting there, he was discharged from the Army, came
to London, rejoined there, and obtained a commission in the
Royal Field Artillery. Afterwards he became a valued member
of the Editorial Staff of The Times, on which his genius was at
once recognized and highly appreciated. Much of his work
appeared in The Times, and he was also a contributor to Punch.
In collaboration with his father, Captain Malcolm Ross, the New
Zealand War Correspondent, he was the author of " Light and
Shade in War," of which the Daily Mail said: "It is full of>
Anzac virility, full of Anzac buoyancy, and surcharged with that
devil-may-care humour that, has so astounded us jaded peoples
of an older world."

' His writings attracted the attention of such capable writers
as Rudyard Kipling, and Sir Ian Hamilton, who said he reminded
him in many ways of that gallant and brilliant young Englishman,
Rupert Brooke.

WITH THE BRITISH INTERNED
IN SWITZERLAND.

By LiEUT.-CoLONEL H. p. PICOT, C.B.E., ' •

Late Military Attach^, 1914-16, and British Officer in Charge of the
Interned, 1916-18.

I vol. Demy 8vo. Cloth. los. 6d. net.

In this volume Colonel Picot tells us, in simple and lucid
fashion, how some thousands of our much tried and suffering
countrymen were transferred — to the eternal credit of Switzer-
land — from the harsh conditions of captivity to a neutral soil,
there to live in comparative freedom amid friendly surroundings.
He describes in some' detail the initiative taken by the Swiss
Government on behalf of the Prisoners of War in general, and
the negociations which preceded the acceptance by the Belligerent
States of the principle of Internment, and then recounts the
measures taken by that Government for the hospitalization of

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements, g

some 30,000 Prisoners of War, and the organization of a Medical
Service for the treatment of the sick and wounded.

Turning, then, more particularly to the group of British
prisoners, he deals with their discipline, their camp life, the steps
taken for spiritual welfare, and the organization of sports and
recreations, and an interesting chapter records the efforts made
to afford them technical training in view of their return to civil
life.

The book also comprises a resume of the formation and
development of the Bread Bureau at Berne, which ultimately,
in providing bread for 100,000 British prisoners of war in
Germany, doubtless saved countless lives ; and a description of
the activities of the British Legation Red Cross Organization,
both of which institutions were founded by Lady Grant Duff,
wife of H.M.'s Minister at Berne.

Colonel Picot, throws many interesting sidelights on life in
Switzerland in war-time — diplomatic, social, and artistic — and his
modest and self-effacing narrative dwells generously on the
devotion of all those who, whether by appointment or chance,
were associated with him in his beneficent labours.

It is hoped that this account of a specif jihase in the history
of our countrymen will prove of interest to that large public
who have shown in countless ways their sympathy with all that
concerns the welfare of Prisoners of War.

A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY
EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

By ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK,

Author pF " Tante," "The Encounter," etc.

Demy 8vo. Cloth. los. 6d. net.

'VVith exquisite literary art which the reading public has recog-
nised in " Tante " and others of her novels, the author of this
book tells of a great lady's childhood in picturesque Brittany in
the middle of the last century. It covers that period of life
around which the tenderest and most vivid memories cluster;
a childhood set in a district of France rich in romance, and rich
in old loyalties to manners and customs of a gracious era that is
irrevocably in the past.

Charming vignettes of character, marvellous descriptions of
houses, costumes and scenery, short stories in silhouette of
pathetic or humorous characters — these are also in the book.

And through it all the author is seen re-creating a background,
which has profoundly influenced one of the finest literary artists
of the last century.

10 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

GARDENS : THEIR FORM
AND DESIGN.

By the Viscountess WOLSELEY.

With numerous Illustrations by Miss M. G. CAMPION.

I vol. Medium Svo, 21s. net.

The present volume, which is beautifully got up and illustrated,
deals with form and line in the garden, a subject comparatively
new in England.

Lady Wolseley's book suggests simple, inexpensive means —
the outcome of practical knowledge and experience — for achieving
charming results in gardens of all sizes. Her College of Gar-
dening at Glynde has shown Lady Wolseley how best to make
clear to thpse who have never before thought about garden design,
some of the complex subjects embraced by it, such as Water
Gardens, Rock Gardens, Treillage, Paved Gardens, Surprise
Gardens, etc. The book contains many decorative and imaginar
tive drawings by Miss Mary G. Campion, as well as a large
number of practical diagrams and plans, which further illustrate
the author's ideas and add to the value of the book.

MEMORIES OF THE MONTHS.

SIXTH SERIES.

By the Rt. Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bt.,
F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.

With photogravure frontispiece. Large Crown Bvo. los. 6d. net.

It is some years since the fifth series of " Memories of the
Months " was issued, but the demand for Sir Herbert Maxwell's
charming volumes continues unabated. Every year rings new
changes on the old order of Nature, and the observant eye can
always find fresh features on the face of the Seasons. Sir
Herbert Maxwell goes out to meet Nature on the moor and loch,
in garden and forest, and writes of what he sees and feels. It is
a volume of excellent gossip, the note-book of a well-informed
and high-spirited student of Nature, where the sportsman's
ardour is tempered always with the sympathy of the lover of
wild things, and the naturalist's interest is leavened with the
humour of a cultivated man of the world. This is what gives
the work its abiding charm, and makes these memories fill the
place of old friends on the library bookshelf.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. ii

SINGLE-HANDED CRUISING.

By FRANCIS B. COOKE,

Author of "The Corinthian Yachtsman's Handbook," "Cruising Hints," Etc.

Illustrated, los. 6d. net.

The contents of this volume being based upon the author's
many years' practical experience of single-handed sailing, are
sure to be acceptable to those who, either from choice or
necessity, make a practice of cruising alone. Of the four
thousand or more yachts whose names appear in Lloyd's
Register, quite a considerable proportion are small craft used for the
most part for week-end cruising, and single-handed sailing is a
proposition that the owner of a week-ender cannot afford altogether
to ignore. To be dependent upon the assistance of friends, who
may leave one in the lurch at the eleventh hour, is a miserable
business that can only be avoided by having a yacht which one is
capable of handling alone. The ideal arrangement is to have a
vessel of sufficient size to accommodate one or two guests and yet
not too large to be sailed single-handed at a pinch. In this book
Mr. Cooke gives some valuable hints on the equipment and handling
of such a craft, which, ifc may be remarked, can, in the absence of
paid hands, be maintained at comparatively small cost.

MODERN ROADS.

By H. PERCY BOULNOIS, M.Inst.C.E., F.R.San.Inst., etc.

Demy %vo. i6s. net.

The author is well known as one of the leading authorities on
road-making, and he deals at length with Traffic, Water-bound
Macadam Roads, Surface Tarring, Bituminous Roads, Waves
and Corrugations, Slippery Roads, Paved Streets (Stone and
Wood, etc.), Concrete Road Construction, etc.

12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS.

By Dr. M. R. JAMES,

Provost of Eton College,

Crown %vo. Cloth. 4s. 6d. net.

The Provost of Eton needs no introduction as a past master of
the art of making our flesh creep, and those who have enjoyed
his earlier books may rest assured that his Ijand has lost none of
its blood7Curdling cunning. Neither is it necessary to remind
therd that Dr. James's inexhaustible stories of archasological
erudition furnish him with a unique power of giving' his gruesome
tales a picturesque setting, and heightening by their literary and
antiquarian charm the exquisite pleasure derived from thrills of
imaginary terror. This latter quality iias never been more happily
displayed than in the stories contained in the present volume,
which we submit with great confidence to the judgment of all
who appreciate — and who does not;? — a good old-fashioned hair-
raising ghost story.

IRew Ebftions.

GHOST STORIES OF AN
ANTIQUARY.

By Dr. M. R. JAMES,

PsovosT OF Eton College.

New Edition, Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

MORE GHOST STORIES.

By Dr. M. R. JAMES.
New Edition. Crown 8vo. gs. net.

THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN.

By Captain HARRY GRAHAM,

Author of "Ruthless Rhymes," etc.

New Edition, < Crown 8z;o. Cloth, 35. 6d. net.

THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN.

By Captain HARRY GRAHAM.
New Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth. 3s. 6d. net.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 13

^be flDobern i£bucator'6 Xtbrarig.

General Editor: Professor A. A. COCK.

The present age is seeing an unprecedented advance in educa-
tional theory and practice ; its whole outlook on the ideals and
methods of teaching is being widened. The aim of this new series
is to present the considered views of teachers of wide experience,
and eminent ability, upon the changes in method involved in this
development, and upon the problems which still remain to be
solved, in the several branches of teaching with which they are
most intimately connected. It is hoped, therefore, that these
volumes will be instructive not only to teachers, but to all who are
interested in the progress of education.

Each volume, contains an index and a comprehensive biblio-
graphy of the subject with which it deals.

EDUCATION : ITS DATA AND
FIRST PRINCIPLES.

By T. PERCY NUNN, M.A., D.Sc,

Professor of Education in the University of London ; Author of " The Aims
AND Achievements of Scientific Method," "The Teaching of Algebra," etc.

Crown 8vo. Cloth. 6s. net.

Dr. Nunn's volume really forms an introduction to the whole
series, and deals with the fundamental questions which lie at the
root of educational inquiry. The first is that of the aims of educa-
tion. These, he says, are always correlative to ideals pf life, and,
as ideals of life are eternally at variance, their conflict will be
reflected in educational theories. The individualism of post-
reformation Europe gradually gave way to a reaction culminating
in Hegel, which pictured the state as the superentity of which the
single life is but a fugitive element. The logical result of this
Hegelian ideal the world has just seen, and educators of to-day
have to decide' whether to foster this sinister tradition or to help
humanity to escape from it to something better. What we need
is a doctrine which, while admitting the importance of the social
element in man, reasserts the importance of the individual.

This notion of individuality as the ideal of life is worked out at
length, and on the results of this investigation are based the con-
clusions which are reached upon the practical problem of
embodying this ideal in teaching. Among other subjects, the
author deals with Routine and Ritual, Play, Nature and Nurture,
Imitation, Instinct ; and there is a very illuminating last chapter
on " The School and the Individual."

14 Mr. , Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS
EDUCATION.

By SOPHIE BRYANT, D.Sc, Litt.D.

Late Head Mistrbss of the North London Collegiate School for Girls
Author of "Educational Ends," etc.

Crown 8vo. Cloth. 6s. net.

In this book, Mrs. Bryant, whose writings on educational sub-
jects are widely known, takes the view that in order to produce
the best result over the widest area, the teaching of morality
through the development of religious faith, and its teaching by
direct appeal to self-respect, reason, sympathy and common
sense, are both necessary. In religion, more than in anything
else,; different individuals must follow different paths to the goal.

Upon this basis the book falls into four parts. The first deals
with the processes of spiritual self-realisation by means of interest
in knowledge and art, and of personal affections and social interest,
which all emerge in the development of conscience. The second
part treats of the moral ideal and how it is set forth by means of
heroic romance and history, and in the teaching of Aristotle, to
build up the future fcitizen. The third presents the religious ideal,
its beginnings and the background of ideas implied by it, together
with suggestions for study of the Bible and the lives of the Saints.
In the fourth part the problem of the reasoned presentment of
religious truths is dealt with in detail.

There is no doubt that this book makes a very considerable
addition to what has already been' written on the subject of
religious education.

THE TEACHING OF MODERN

FOREIGN LANGUAGES IJST SCHOOL

AND UNIVERSITY.

By H. G. ATKINS, M.A.,

Professor of German in King's College, University of London,
AND University Reader in German,

AND

H. L. HUTTON, M.A.,

Senior Modern Language Master at Merchant Taylors' School.

Crown 8vo, Cloth. 6s, net.

The first part of this book deals with the School, the second
with the University, While each part is mainly written by one
of the authors, they have acted in collaboration and have treated

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 15

the two subjects as interdependent. They have referred only briefly
to the main features of the past history, and have chiefly tried to
give a broad survey of the present position of modern language
teaching, and the desirable policy for the future.

As regards the School, conclusions are first reached as to the
relative amount of time to be devoted to modern languages in the
curriculum, abd the various branches of the subject — its organ-
isation and methods, the place of grammar and the history of the
language — are then discussed. A chapter is devoted to the
questions relating to the second foreign language, and the study
is linked up with the University course.

In the second part Professor Atkins );races the different ends to
which the School course continued at the University may lead,
with special reference to the higher Civil Service Examinations
and to the training of Secondary School Teachers.

The general plan of the book was worked out before the publi-
cation of the report of the Government Committee appointed by
the Prime Minister to enquire into the ■ position of Modern
Languages in the educational system of Great Britain. With
the report, however, the authors' conclusions were in the main
found to agree, and the text of the book has been brought up-to-
date by references to the report which have been made in footnotes
as well as in places in the text. No further modifications were
thought to be necessary.

The book will be found to give a comprehensive review of the
whole field of modern language teaching and some valuable help
towards the solution of its problems.

THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT.

By E. R. MURRAY,

Vice-Principal of Maria Grey Training College; Author of "Froebel as a
Pioneer in Modern Psychology," etc.,

AND

HENRIETTA BROWN SMITH, LL.A.,

Lecturer in Education, Goldsmith's College, University of London ; Editor of
" Education by Life."

Crown 8vo. Cloth. 6s. net.

The authors of this book deal with the young child at the outset
of its education, a stage the importance of which cannot be
exaggerated. The volume is written in two parts, the first
dealing with, the child in the Nursery.and Kindergarten, and the
second with the child in the State School, Much that is said is
naturally applicable to either form of School, and, where this is so,
repetition has been avoided by means of cross references. ,

i6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

The authors find that the great weakness of English education
in the past has been want of a definite aina to put before the
children, and the want of a philosophy for the teacher. Without
some understanding of the meaning and purpose of life the teacher
is at the mercy of every fad, and is apt to exalt method above
principle. This book is an attempt to gather together certain
, recognised principles, and to show in the light of actual experience
how these may be applied to existing circumstances. They put
forward a strong plea for the recognition of the' true value of Play,
the " spontaneous activity in all directions," and for courage
and faith on the part of the teacher to put this recognition into
practice ; and they look forward to the time when the conditions
of public Elementary Schools, from the Nursery School up, will be
such — in point of numbers, space, situation and beauty of
surroundings— that parents of any class will gladly let their
children attend them.

Further volumes in this series are in preparation and will he
published shortly.

FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MUSIC.

By F. J. READ, Mus. Doc. (Oxon.)

Formerly Professor at the Royal College of Music.

Crown %vo. is. 6d.

This book is the result of the author's long experience as
Professor of Theory at the Royal College of Music, and is the
clearest and most concise treatise of the kind that has yet been
written.

" It is a useful little book, covering a wider field than any other of the kind
that we know." — The Times.

" It is calculated to quicken interest in various subjects outside the normal
scope of an elementary musical grammar. The illustrated chapter on
orchestral instruments, for instance, is a welcome and stimulating innovation, ' '
—Daily Telegraph.

^m

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